According to a February 2010 survey sponsored by the antivirus software company Symantec, 79% of respondents in 14 countries believed that cybercriminals will never be brought to justice.
As the risks linked to the use of Internet and its pervasiveness in our everyday lives become better documented, Canadian policies relating to cybercrime remain relatively vague. Some countries, like the United States, have chosen to militarize their response to these threats while others, such as France, have based their response on excessive litigiousness.
What are the choices available to Canadian policy- and decision-makers? Is it possible to consider an alternative approach to bridging the characteristics of the Internet and a flexible legislative framework that can respond to the needs of Canadians facing increasing cyber-criminality?
Benoit Dupont holds a Canada Research Chair in security, identity, and technology and is the director of the International Centre for Comparative Criminology at the Université de Montréal. His work helps advance our understanding of changes in society that affect both private and public security. In this Big Thinking lecture from Dec. 9, 2010 on Parliament Hill, Dr. Dupont outlines what such an alternative policy approach might look like in Canada using case studies and explaining the structures of computer-related crime.