MOSCOW, 27 April (BelTA) – The number of crimes committed using computer systems and the Internet increased by more than ten times in Belarus in the last five years. Prosecutor General of Belarus Andrei Shved made the statement a session of the joint collegium of the prosecutor general's offices of Belarus and Russia in Moscow on 27 April, BelTA has learned.
According to the source, cybercrimes accounted for over one fourth of all the crimes committed in Belarus in 2020. Most of them were thefts. Not only organizations but citizens, particularly unprotected population strata and pensioners, suffered at the hands of the criminals. Cyber thefts undermine trust in banks and require serious measures to plug holes in their security systems.
Representatives of the Belarusian prosecution service and the Russian one met to discuss cooperation of Belarusian and Russian law enforcement agencies in detecting, suppressing, and investigating crimes relating to security violations in the sphere of information and communication technologies. “While talking about interaction and the counteraction of criminal offences in the sphere of information technologies, one should mention the promising nature of the digital economy in modern conditions,” Andrei Shved underlined. “The conditions created in Belarus for the sake of encouraging information and communication services, including the favorable legal regime, bear fruit. Naturally such growth of digital economy and the development of modern technologies attract not only honest citizens but criminals, too. The problem on the agenda of today's meeting is of current interest for the Union State of Belarus and Russia. The transboundary nature of crimes in the sphere of information and communication technologies, ways of committing them that make the identification of criminals difficult require law enforcement and oversight agencies to work smoothly.”
The official stated that information technologies are increasingly used to commit frauds, extortions, distribute false information about danger, and disclose personal data and other data protected by law. Telegram channels, social networks, including those run from the territory of other countries, were actively used to organize and coordinate illegal activities meant to destabilize the situation in Belarus in 2020, the official reminded. Proper counteraction of cybercrimes and their investigation are impossible without tight international cooperation, without sharing cutting-edge practices, without sending and executing requests for legal aid promptly.
In turn, Prosecutor General of Russia Igor Krasnov said they had jointly decided to discuss interaction of Belarusian and Russian law enforcement agencies in counteracting cybercrimes. “In conditions of global integration of modern technologies into everyday life they become increasingly used as a tool to commit various crimes, including those we have never seen previously,” he stated.
In his words, these days money is often stolen from bank cards, crypto currencies are used in illegal drugs trade, corruption, the financing of organized crime, extremism, and terrorism. Despite the efforts to combat these crimes no breakthrough has been secured yet. The number of such crimes grows by several times every year while the crime detection rate in Belarus and Russia does not exceed 25%. It means the problems the two countries face are similar.
It was noted that the rapid development of modern information and communication technologies fosters the growing number of crimes against citizens and gives birth to new threats to state security and public security. “Results of counteraction of cybercrimes depend partially on the development of our bilateral cooperation taking into account mechanisms of the Union State of Belarus and Russia, perfection and unification of the legislation as well as the organizational foundations of the fight against new criminal threats,” Igor Krasnov said.
According to the press service of the Prosecutor General's Office of Belarus, the joint collegium decided in favor of stepping up information security and cyber security. Interaction between the prosecutor general's offices of Belarus and Russia will be improved, including as part of the execution of requests for mutual legal aid. The coordination of work of Belarusian and Russian law enforcement agencies in counteracting cybercrimes will be improved.
