Traditional law enforcement methods are useless against cybercriminals who do not need to visit the crime scene or communicate with the victim. This was discussed at the international workshop on “Cybersecurity and New Technologies” held at the Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

Over forty specialists from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and representatives of the UN, OSCE, European Union, and INTERPOL attended the event to assess the risks of terrorist activities based on the use of the Internet.

The workshop is organized by the UN Counter-Terrorism Centre (UNCCT) and the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT) in collaboration with INTERPOL as part of their joint project CT TECH.

According to the head of the Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Colonel Rustam Khatamov, terrorism in all its forms and manifestations poses one of the most severe threats to the world community and undermines global stability. Therefore, the fight against it remains a priority task for law enforcement agencies. In 2021, global losses from cybercrime amounted to $8.5 trillion. International costs of computer fraud are projected to grow 23 percent annually over the next five years.

In October 2020, an action plan was signed with the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism, which outlined the holding of this event. Within its framework, the attending experts will discuss the prospects for creating a virtual network to counter cyber-terrorism in Central Asia and become familiar with the best practices used in developing national counter-terrorism response measures. Effective methods of countering the use of new technologies by terrorists will be presented here.

EU Ambassador to Uzbekistan, Ms. Charlotte Adriaen, noted that technology and computers can be used for good, but terrorists can also use them. Therefore, sharing experiences and adopting the best practical skills necessary to combat criminal activity on the Internet is required.

The workshop will run until September 26, 2023.

Roman Bondarchuk, UzA