Tonga joins 24/7 Cybercrime Network [1]
Tuesday, August 14, 2018 - 17:27
Tonga became the 84th member of the G7 24/7 Cybercrime Network of Contact Points on 3 August 2018.
The 84 countries that are members of the Network operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week to respond to urgent requests from members to investigate crimes against computers or hand-held electronic devices, and crimes that used computers or electronic hand-held mobile devices.
The informal group was known as the "G8 24/7" in 1997 and its eight members was made up of eight industrialised countries, USA, Japan, Germany, the UK, France, Italy, Canada and Russia. In 2014 Russia was excluded after it annexed Crimea then it became known as G7 24/7 Cybercrime Network of Contact Points.
Tonga's membership application was submitted to the chairman of the network, which is currently held by the United Sates Department of Justice, during a regional workshop delivered by the 24/7 Network for Asian countries from 31 July to 3 August 2018 in Melaka, Malaysia.
A Press Statement from the office of the Attorney General stated that any contact from Tonga to the G7 24/7 Network can only be made through the contact points registered through the Attorney General’s Office. Tonga now expands its international cooperation capacity in cybercrime. On May 2017 Tonga acceded to the Council of Europe’s Convention on Cyber crime (Budapest Convention) that also has a 24/7 network of points of contact for its 59 current parties.