New Police Lab to help fight cybercrime

Botswana Police Service is anticipating an increase in convictions of cybercrime cases once their P267 million new Digital Forensic Laboratory becomes operational. The Laboratory will be certified using ISO 17025, according to Kealeboga Keeditse of the Botswana Police Service, rendering it a credible and competent facility capable of generating valid results. The lab is integral to the implementation of the National Cybersecurity Strategy (NCS) that was formulated to deal with rising incidents of cybercrime in the country. Approximately P20 million was lost in 2018 as a result of a variety of cyber crime in Botswana. Keeditse said at a National Cybersecurity Strategy workshop last week that the role of the Police in the NCS is to be an investigating authority and enforce all the written laws of Botswana.Currently Botswana uses the Electronic Records (Evidence) Act of 2014. The Act applies to all legal proceedings before all courts – civil, criminal or administrative proceedings or before a tribunal, board or commission as well as affidavits in such proceedings. In addition, this law permits admission of any evidence generated and stored in electronic form, and courts of law will now be able to admit such records when tendered as part of evidence. It also takes into consideration digital forensics. The recently enacted Cybercrime and Computer Related Crimes Act of 2018 also helps combat cybercrime and computer related crimes, to repress criminal activities perpetrated through a computer or computer system and to facilitate the collection of electronic evidence. The law, which replaced the 2007 Act, also introduces crimes like cyber bullying, racism, xenophobic remarks, revenge pornography and offensive communication. Keeditse says among the common cyber and related crimes in Botswana are unauthorised access to systems and theft of data, business email compromise commonly known as change of supplier fraud, social media crimes including extortion, cyber bullying, romance fraud and child pornography as well as revenge porn and embezzlement. He adds that of concern to the Police are social media pages like Youth of Botswana and Citizens of Botswana where a variety of violations noted in the legislation take place. “Last year we had numerous cases of embezzlement,” Keeditse said, adding that “tenderpreneurs are the most gullible because they are constantly looking for opportunities to make money, but end up falling victim to fraudsters.” Keeditse cautioned about romance fraud stating that it mostly affects women. Last year, they had to deal with a case in which a woman spent hours at the airport waiting for a man supposedly in a romance relationship with her after sending him money for air tickets. Their biggest challenge is the complex nature of the investigations as well as new areas of forensics like Cloud Forensics. According to Keeditse, the lack of understanding of computer terminology by the judicial system is another headache for examiners. Other challenges include the new paradigm of Big Data, where storage of evidence is being affected, and encryption and other data hiding techniques, as well as human resources capacitation and maintenance of skills set. As of September 2018, Police spokesperson, Near Bagali confirmed to The Midweek Sun that there were 56 registered cases, 39 in 2017, 25 cases in 2016 and 23 cases in 2015.