SAPS not equipped to deal with new Cybercrimes Bill

While the new Cybercrimes Bill makes strict provisions to curb crimes such as incitement to violence and revenge porn, and prosecute the spreading of harmful messages on the internet, the big challenge is for police to be adequately equipped to tackle them, say experts.

The Bill, passed by parliament last week, has yet to be signed into law by the president.

The law will criminalise cyber attacks and other such crimes, as well as the spread of harmful messages on social media. This means those who spread revenge porn or distribute harmful messages which incite violence through social media, the internet and other digital platforms such as WhatsApp, could be prosecuted.

“The Bill is specific about people wanting to spread compromising images or images such as revenge or fake porn and shaming the bodies of women. It tries to criminalise those activities, including people sending messages online to promote and incite violence and damage to property, such as during protests,” said Jabu Mtsweni, head of the cyber
and information research centre at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

Parts of the Bill deal with hacking and cyber attacks. It compels electronic communication service providers and financial institutions to report any possible offence they are aware of.

“They must report that to the police. We have the obligation to report to police who must investigate for the National Prosecuting Authority to take over…,” he said.

The Bill makes provisions for law enforcement agencies such as the SA Police Service and the State Security Agency to establish and maintain the required resources and operational capacity, and provide training to their members.

Cybercrimes can be categorised into two categories – one being hacking attacks, such as those on banks to elicit a ransom and to damage or steal data; and cyber-enabled attacks which consist of harmful content posted on social media such as revenge porn and cyberbullying, Institute for Security Studies’ senior research advisor for emerging threats in Africa, Karen Allen, explained.

Resources within the police are a huge issue, Allen said, and efforts to try and build capacity were limited.

“The bill does have provisions for that… but it is not clear how that will be policed. Within SAPS there are officers who are monitoring social media but there is no desk of people monitoring social media all of the time. One of the biggest challenges is how quickly the messages like revenge porn and sites can spread, and how slow they [police] can react to that or take it down.”

Policing content shared on WhatsApp could prove even more difficult, as the application is encrypted.

“The new Bill defines a new range of crimes and sets out what cybercrime is, which is a great starting point for police and prosecutors. What the next hurdle is, is for the police, Hawks and investigators to have the tools to identify who  the criminals are … and they are not yet there,” she said.

– rorisangk@citizen.co.za

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