Canada’s
National Cyber Security Strategy identifies the activities of malicious cyber actors as a “growing challenge”. Following the adoption of the ‘Protecting Canadians from Online Crime’ Act, Canada acceded to the Council of Europe’s Budapest Convention in 2015 and has since consistently
promoted the instrument as the “best tool to fight cybercrime at the international level”. Canada has
specifically “encourage[d] countries to bolster their anti-cybercrime efforts by becoming Parties to the Convention, or using it as a model to implement their own cybercrime laws”. Moreover, upon Canada’s initiative, the Quintet of Attorneys General (which brings together Attorneys General from Canada, the US, Australia, New Zealand and the UK) issued a
public statement at their July 2019 meeting, expressing their support for the Budapest Convention as a “necessary basic framework for fighting cybercrime” and for the work of the United Nations Open-Ended Intergovernmental Expert Group on Cybercrime (UNIEG). Being part of the ‘like-minded’ group of states, Canada voted against the Russian-sponsored
UNGA Resolution 74/247 aiming at establishing an alternative cybercrime instrument; upon the passage of 74/247 and its follow-up
UNGA Resolution 75/282, however, Canada has been a vocal member of the Ad Hoc Committee on Cybercrime. Prior to the Committee’s May 2021 organizational session, the
Canadian position paper on the Implementation of 74/247 noted that the Committee must “ensure consistency with existing UN treaties in the field of crime prevention and criminal justice, in particular the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, the United Nations Convention against Corruption and take into account multilateral instruments that have already proven their usefulness in the fight against cybercrime, in particular the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime”. In the same document, Canada emphasized the need for an “inclusive, transparent, constructive, and consensus-based process that will lead to a fair outcome to the benefit of all”. The
first session of the Ad Hoc Committee will be held in New York from 17 to 28 January 2022. Canada’s perspective on the scope, objectives, and structure of the convention was submitted to the Ad Hoc Committee in advance of the start of the first negotiation session (
E).
Costa Rica is one of the few Latin American countries to have signed the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime, along with the First and Second Protocol (this one was signed in 2022 but yet to be ratified), and is at the forefront of cybercrime legislation in the region.
National legislation on cybercrime is
fully compliant with the Convention and is contained in the Law on Intervention of Telecommunications and the Law of
Computer Crimes and Related Crimes. It includes penalties for committing cybercrimes in the country. Additionally, legislative regulations were introduced to govern the use of social networks and other electronic means.
Their
Cybersecurity Policy from 2017 was updated in 2021 with the creation of the CSIRT, the implementation of cybersecurity protocols across public institutions and the establishment of partnerships with strategic actors, mainly in the private sector.
Uruguay is not a signatory State of the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime, cooperating in international affairs outside of the framework established by the Council of Europe. However, it has a relatively low rate of cybercrime compared to other countries in the region, staking its position as one of the most advanced countries in Latin America and the Caribbean in terms of
cybersecurity. Much of its success relies on the
Cybersecurity Framework published in 2021, which is allowing Uruguay to start using
artificial intelligence to automate incident response and pattern detection, as well as incorporating data analytics to make projections and anticipate incidents.
Regarding Data Protection, Uruguay has adapted its national framework to the European GDPR, despite its latest
Data Protection Law dating back to 2008.