Cyber crime workshop to be held in Joburg

The workshop will be hosted by the European Union (EU) and the Council of Europe in association with the South African Judicial Education Institute (SAJEI), Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng’s office said in a statement.

Held under the auspices of GLACY (Global Action on Cybercrime), which was a joint project of the EU and the Council of Europe, the project was aimed at supporting countries worldwide in implementing the Budapest Convention which was established in November 2013 and to which South Africa was a signatory, the statement said.

The GLACY project was expected to conclude at the end of October 2016.

“This international workshop is being held for the first time on the African continent. Deputy Judge President of the Gauteng Division of the High Court, Judge Aubrey Ledwaba, will give the keynote address, while representatives from the European Union, the Council of Europe, and the CEO of SAJEI, Dr Gomolemo Moshoeu, will also make opening remarks as the stakeholders of the workshop.”

South Africa ranked among the top ten countries that were hard hit by cybercrime. The cost of cybercrime to the global economy was estimated at billions of dollars and trillion of rand.

Cybercrime had a far-reaching impact on the world at large. It adversely affected, among others, economic growth, national security, trade opportunities, and competitiveness, and was linked to other crimes such as human trafficking, money laundering, and drug trafficking.

During the conference, presentations would be made by various representatives of the 18 countries participating in the GLACY project.

They would discuss the integration into the judicial curricula of cybercrime and electronic evidence gathering, ensuring that the judiciary was empowered with information to effectively adjudicate over cybercrime cases in their courtrooms, the statement said.