Cybersecurity, Cybercrime and Privacy Landscape in Global Development
ZeroDay Law offers global cyber and privacy insight for countries, private companies, and international organizations. Founder, Tara Swaminatha, has experience advising executive government leaders in Africa, Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia about implementing cybersecurity strategies, data protection and cybercrime laws—building countries' cybersecurity legal regimes from the ground up. She has taken a pivotal role in drafting national legislation and strategies on cybersecurity, data protection and cybercrime, and provides strategic advice on incident response, cyber governance, and law enforcement investigations following cyberattacks.
Why is this work so critical at this moment in time?
As a field, international development aims to improve economic opportunity and living conditions in developing countries. Beyond basic infrastructure, however, nowadays economic growth requires Internet and communications connectivity. To stimulate the economy and increase opportunities for a country's workers, emerging economies seek foreign direct investment, i.e., foreign businesses engaging in commerce. Foreign investors seek out countries with strong Information and Communications (ICT) sectors and a legal regime that offers assurances to protect their interests and assets
The development of a solid ICT legal regime to support strategic economic growth starts with ZeroDay Law.
Global Development: From Cyber Legislation to Incident Readiness for Countries
ZeroDay Law’s work has involved drafting cybercrime and data protection legislation for country governments; educating stakeholders about cybersecurity, incident response and cyber threat intelligence sharing; recommending updates to countries’ national cybersecurity strategies; increasing citizens’ awareness of cybersecurity by preparing content for radio broadcasts; identifying plans for cybersecurity upskilling for citizens, small businesses, and civil society organizations; and helping supporting efforts to structure the cybersecurity landscape in countries’ governments.
With our unique expertise, we facilitate in-person training for government officials, judges and law enforcement on several cybersecurity governance topics, including:
- Drafting or revising countries’ cybercrime and data protection legislation and national cybersecurity strategies
- Training for judges and supreme court justices, law enforcement, drug enforcement agencies, anti-corruption and communications commissions on cybersecurity-related topics
- Incident response for national governments
- Cryptocurrency and derivatives
- Cybercrime investigations
- Capacity building
- Public-private partnerships
Countries We’ve Worked With to Date
- Ghana
- Nigeria
- Tanzania
- Timor-Leste
- Ukraine
- Zambia
Partner Organizations
Tara has worked collaboratively with several key stakeholders.Global Cybersecurity Ecosystem Development: Recent Projects and Experience
2024
- Tanzania - Cybersecurity Strategy and Training: Brief Ministry of Information, Communication & Information Technology (MICIT) on virtual private network (VPN) regulation, U.S. proposed legislation to stop child sexual abuse material (CSAM), African Union Malabo Convention, Lanzarote Convention. Develop and create training content on Incident Response planning for Nations and Service Providers’ disclosure of personal information to government actors.
2023
- Tanzania - Cybersecurity Strategy and Training: Review and consult on data protection and privacy legislation, and cybersecurity strategy for the government of Tanzania, develop training on cyber capacity-building and cybersecurity basics, e.g., NIST Cybersecurity Framework.
Consult on matters related to child online protection and identify actions taken by the international community to promote youth safety in the digital environment. Provide recommendations on conceptual updates to the National Cybersecurity Framework.
2022
- Ghana - Cryptocurrency and Digital Assets Training for Supreme Court Justices and Judges: Develop content for and present admitting cryptocurrency evidence in court in 2-day in-person training in Accra, Ghana for Ghana Judicial Training Institute.
- Zambia - Cybercrime Forensic Investigations Training: Develop content for and present in cybercrime and digital investigation 3-day in-person training in Lusaka, Zambia for prosecutors, forensic investigators and analysts for the Zambian National Police, Anti-Corruption Commission and Drug Enforcement Agency.
- Nigeria - Data Protection & Service Provider Content Disclosure Training: Develop content for and present in cybercrime, digital investigation, communications service provider content disclosure and data protection in-person training sessions in 2-day Abuja, Nigeria for the Nigerian Communications Commission.
2021
- Ukraine - Legal Assessment Expert, Cybersecurity for Critical Infrastructure. Review and recommend strategy and practical changes in legal assessment as part of the overall project to improve cybersecurity for critical infrastructure.
2020-2022
- Timor-Leste - Legislation Drafting: Cybercrime, Data Protection; Budapest Convention Advice. Draft cybercrime, data protection and privacy legislation, and update cybersecurity strategy for the government of Timor-Leste incorporating global best practices with specialized consideration for developing countries.