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OAS HOLDS REGIONAL WORKSHOP IN COLOMBIA ON BEST PRACTICES FOR CYBER SECURITY AND THE FIGHT AGAINST CYBERCRIME

On November 28, 29 and 30, a Regional Workshop on Best Practices for Cyber Security and the Fight against Cybercrime took place in Bogota, Colombia. The Workshop was jointly organized by the General Secretariat of the OAS, through the Department of Legal Cooperation of the Secretariat for Legal Affairs, the Secretariat of the Inter-American Committee against Terrorism, and the United States Department of Justice, which serves as the Chair the Working Group on Cyber-Crime of the REMJA (Meetings of Ministers of Justice or Other Ministers or Attorneys General of the Americas), and the Government of Colombia.

The Workshop, which brought together officials with direct responsibilities in the aforementioned areas from the OAS Member States, as well as more than one hundred and thirty experts from around the world. was composed of two large training modules, as well as a technical training exercise. The first module concerned the investigation and prosecution of cybercrimes, and forms part of a broader program that has been carried out in fulfillment of recommendations of the REMJA, and in particular, it’s Working Group on Cyber-Crime.

This component of the Bogota Workshop constituted the 17th such regional workshop carried out with the support of the Department of Legal Cooperation, in its role as Technical Secretariat of the REMJA Working Group on Cyber-Crime, and with the technical and financial support of the United States Department of Justice. Pursuant to this training program, approximately 50 investigators and prosecutors from the Americas received training in Bogota, in various areas related to the fight against cyber-crime, including specific techniques and procedures for the investigation of cyber-crimes; international and regional developments in the fight against cyber-crimes; international cooperation and mutual assistance in the field; and guidelines for the drafting of effective substantive and procedural national legislation for addressing cyber-crimes, among others. The Bogota workshop increases the number of government officials that have received training within the framework of the Working Group to approximately 700.

The second training module concerned the protection of critical infrastructures and the development of national cyber-security strategies, among others, and is a part of the training offered by the Secretariat of the Inter-American Committee against Terrorism (CICTE). In this regard, this component included officials involved with the determination of national policies from OAS Member States. In addition, a technical training exercise was also carried out, concerned national responses to a simulated cyber-security incident, and was designed and executed under the guidance and direction of the OAS Department of Information Technology Services.

The joint actions of the REMJA Working Group on Cyber-Crime and of CICTE, and of their respective technical secretariats within the General Secretariat of the OAS, form part of the Hemispheric Cybersecurity Strategy adopted by the OAS General Assembly.

For more information on these workshops and other OAS activities to support the fight against Cybercrimes, consult the “
Inter-American Cooperation Portal on Cyber-Crime”.


 

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