(Business in Cameroon) - The Cameroonian government announced plans to tighten its cybercrime countermeasures. Before the plan is executed, the National Assembly of Cameroon will vote on a bill authorizing the President of the Republic to ratify the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime, signed in November 2001. According to the explanatory statement of this bill defended on March 25, 2022, by the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, Minette Libom Li Likeng (pictured), the ratification of this convention will allow Cameroon to align with international anti-cybercrime standards.

Specifically, in addition to allowing Cameroon "to review and upgrade (its) law on cybercrime to further define the acts of cybercrime and identify them, so that judges are better equipped to sanction," the Budapest Convention will allow the country to "benefit from an exchange of experience and support of large hosts" in the tracking of cybercriminals, explains Minister Libom Li Likeng. "If we don't meet international standards and we have a problem like this, we can't cooperate with Google, Amazon, Facebook..." he explained.

Data from the National ICT Agency (Antic) showed that cybercrime caused financial losses of CFA12.2 billion to the Cameroonian economy in 2021. This is double the losses reported by Antic for 2019.

In detail, the financial losses due to intrusions into the computer systems of public and private administrations amount to CFA2.5 billion. Financial losses due to scamming and phishing (technique used by fraudsters to obtain personal information to perpetrate identity theft) amount to CFA6 billion.

Financial losses due to skimming fraud amounted to CFA3.7 billion. Skimming is a scam based on the misappropriation of a consumer's credit card information while using an ATM that has been previously tapped by cybercriminals.

BRM