This year held in a hybrid format, the workshop is the fourth in the series of annual flagship events led by the PILON Cybercrime Working Group and is co-hosted together with the Government of the Republic of Fiji and funded primarily by the Australian Government’s Cyber and Critical Technology Cooperation Program (CCTCP) with support from the Council of Europe.
Titled ‘Combatting Cybercrime: Trends and Tools in a Changing World’, this year’s workshop focused on gendered impacts of online engagement and the most common types of cyber-enabled offences in Pacific communities, promoting knowledge sharing, capacity building and regional cooperation.
The Council of Europe supported the organization of the event through the GLACY+ and Octopus projects, participating with expert speakers and moderators and funding the attendance of representatives from Cook Islands, Palau and Kiribati.
The event featured presentations from senior officials from across the Pacific and other countries and organisations worldwide, including the United States Federal Bureau of Investigations, the Australian Federal Police, the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat and the Reserve Bank of Fiji.
The Budapest Convention on Cybercrime was broadly recognized by high level speakers in the event as the leading standard on cybercrime legislation. In the Pacific region, Tonga is a Party to the Budapest Convention, together with Australia, while New Zealand, Fiji and Vanuatu have been invited to accede to this treaty.
The Council of Europe will continue to work with PILON to strengthen the capacities of Pacific countries on cybercrime and electronic evidence.
