Overview
- More than 60 countries signed at a ceremony attended by U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, with the European Union, the United States and Canada among those participating.
- The treaty will enter into force once 40 member states ratify it, leaving its real-world impact dependent on national approval processes.
- The convention seeks to bolster cross-border cooperation and the collection and sharing of digital evidence for offences ranging from phishing and ransomware to online trafficking.
- Civil society groups, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, warn that broad provisions could enable political surveillance and compel data sharing for broadly defined “serious crimes.”
- The Cybersecurity Tech Accord, representing firms such as Meta and Microsoft, boycotted the signing over concerns about criminalising security research and government data sharing, while Russia hailed the event and Vietnam’s hosting drew rights scrutiny.