in fighting cybercrime is that it is borderless, while law enforcement remains bound by territory. A victim may be sitting in India, the fraudster may be operating from another country, the money may travel through accounts in several jurisdictions before being converted into cryptocurrency, and the critical evidence, including server logs, cloud records, subscriber details or transaction trails, may be held by a company headquartered elsewhere. By the time investigators begin the formal process of seeking assistance from foreign authorities, the digital trail may have gone cold: an account is deleted, a number switched off, data overwritten and proceeds layered through mule accounts, transferred across borders and withdrawn.
Existing mutual legal-assistance processes are often slow, formal and ill suited to the speed of the digital world. Designed for a time when evidence was physical, suspects were easier to locate and crime had a clear territorial centre, they struggle with information that can be copied, altered, encrypted or erased within minutes. From digital-arrest scams and fake investment schemes to identity theft and ransomware, cybercrime now threatens citizens’ savings, confidence and dignity.
India has built important institutions and reporting mechanisms, but domestic capability has inevitable limits when the offender, platform, evidence or money trail lies abroad. No police station, however capable, can compel an overseas service provider or foreign bank to cooperate. In the digital age, delay does not merely slow justice; it can defeat it.
In the digital age, delay does not merely slow justice. It can defeat it.
United Nations Convention against Cybercrime
This is why India’s decision to sign the United Nations Convention against Cybercrime on 25 September 2026 deserves attention. Signed by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly, the Convention seeks to create a more coherent framework for international cooperation against cybercrime, including the preservation and sharing of electronic evidence in serious criminal matters. It is not yet in force: it will become operational only on the ninetieth day after the fortieth country deposits its instrument of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession. India’s signature is therefore an important diplomatic commitment, not an immediate legal transformation; it neither ratifies the treaty nor changes Indian law. But it signals a necessary shift: when crime travels at digital speed, cooperation cannot remain trapped in analogue time.
Put simply, criminals have learned to move faster than countries can cooperate. The Convention seeks to narrow that gap. The convention addresses offences including illegal access, unlawful interception, interference with data or systems, misuse of devices, ICT-enabled fraud and forgery and online child sexual exploitation.
For countries that ratify it, the Convention offers a practical enforcement toolkit:
a. Preserve data urgently: A State may ask another Party to preserve specified data, such as subscriber details, logs, platform records and traffic data, before it is deleted.
b. Access electronic evidence: Parties may seek stored data and certain real-time traffic data through structured mutual legal assistance, subject to domestic law and applicable safeguards.
c. Coordinate around the clock: A 24/7 contact point can facilitate urgent requests, technical advice, evidence preservation and the location of suspects.
d. Follow the money: Parties can cooperate to trace, freeze, seize, confiscate and potentially return criminal proceeds moved abroad, including in online fraud cases.
e. Investigate across borders: The Convention supports direct law-enforcement cooperation, joint investigations, transfer of proceedings and, where domestic law permits, extradition.
f. Build common capacity: It promotes a shared offence framework and technical assistance, training, information exchange and cyber-forensic capacity, particularly for developing countries.
The Convention does not create instant justice or guarantee recovery of fraud proceeds. But it gives the law a better chance of following both the data and the money across borders.
For India, the relevance is immediate. India is one of the world’s largest digital societies.
It has built a sophisticated payments ecosystem, expanded online public services and brought millions into formal financial systems. This success has also created a large target for organised criminal networks that exploit digital trust, financial urgency and anonymity. The Convention offers an opportunity to ensure that the internet does not become a sanctuary for criminals who exploit distance, anonymity and jurisdictional delay.
The test is simple: a border should not become the line at which justice ends.
- Khushbu Jain is a practising advocate in the Supreme Court of India and founding partner of Ark Legal, specialising in privacy law and data protection
