New law to deal with misuse of technology in digital economy

By Jenique Belgrave

Government is seeking to replace the Computer Misuse Act (2005) with new legislation aimed at fighting cybercrime.

Making the announcement during Monday’s opening session of a Workshop on Effective Legal Frameworks for Building the Digital Economy, Attorney General Dale Marshall outlined that a draft has already been prepared by the Law Reform Commission and should be on its way to Parliament in two months.

He noted that the current Act did not cast a wide enough net to address the current day issues facing the digital economy.

“The Computer Misuse Act has as its focus how people misuse the technology, but it didn’t get into the specifics and the nitty gritty. It was a very general statute at the time, but as time moved along, we recognised how poor it was as a statute to govern criminal behavior.

“Our new statute when passed, will provide specifically for the combatting of cybercrime in all of its iterations – from illegal access to computer systems to computer-related fraud to child pornography to child grooming to cyber bullying and all of these things we tried to contort ourselves to see if we can fit it into something now called computer misuse,” he stated.

Marshall stressed, “We cannot look to develop the digital economy across the region in any serious way without looking at cybercrime.”

Speaking at the Accra Beach Resort on the financial crisis recently experienced within the Fintech sector, the Attorney General stressed the importance of such technology in addressing the cost and ease of doing business in the region.

“We must not allow what happened with FTX to cause us to recoil and cower and run from emerging systems. If you look at our history, you will know we had the Great Depression which had most banks in the world on the verge of collapse and in more recent times, we had the Bank of Credit and Commerce International and then we had Enron, and Bernsteins. These things happen from time to time, but we must always view them through a lens of optimism and determine that we will be there when the dust settles,” he stated.

Pleased with the level of interest of both traditional and new players in the local market offering innovative solutions that will enable the movement of money by way of mobile phones, the AG gave the assurance that Barbados will ensure that there is a requisite regulatory environment through its institutions such as the Financial Services Commission, the Central Bank of Barbados and the Fair Trading Commission to “nurture” this fast growing financial services sector.

jeniquebelgrave@barbadostoday.bb