E-SECU~1.QXD

This executive summary from the Institute for Security Studies examines the challenges of e-crime and the legislative responses in Africa and South Africa. It highlights the disconnect between the trans-border nature of digital crime and the territorial limits of law enforcement, while detailing South Africa's efforts to align its electronic transactions legislation with international standards like the European Treaty on Cybercrime.

• E-crimes are distinguished from terrestrial crimes by four primary characteristics: the ease of learning how to commit them, the low resource requirement relative to potential gain, the ability to commit them from a different jurisdiction than the victim, and the fact that they are often not clearly illegal.
• The internet's trans-border nature conflicts with the territorial and nationalistic structure of law enforcement, meaning criminal behaviors have a wider reach than the state-level or regional (such as the European Union) efforts used to combat them.
• South Africa is developing its first electronic transactions bill as part of a five-year strategy to prepare the country for electronic transactions and position it as a leader in the international market, aligning with the European Treaty on Cybercrime.
• While South Africa possesses strong electronic competence within universities and research organizations like the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), its business and financial sectors are poorly prepared for the challenges of e-crime.
• A global survey on e-fraud conducted in 1999 revealed that most participants viewed e-fraud as a more likely threat than traditional fraud, and many organizations suffered from computer fraud despite believing their firms were protected.

APA

Institute for Security Studies (n.d.). E-SECU~1.QXD. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/MISSIONEXECSUM.PDF

Chicago

Institute for Security Studies. E-SECU~1.QXD. n.d. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/MISSIONEXECSUM.PDF.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Institute for Security Studies |title=E-SECU~1.QXD |url=https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/MISSIONEXECSUM.PDF |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{instituteforsecuritystudiesndesecu1qxd, author = {{Institute for Security Studies}}, title = {{E-SECU\textasciitilde{}1.QXD}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, url = {https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/MISSIONEXECSUM.PDF}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }