ABSTRACT
An age-old obligation that has been placed on regional organizations over the years has been to provide a platform for participating member states to discuss policies including security and economic measures, that impact the region. As it relates to the advent of the Internet and new technologies, these same regional bodies have now begun to consider how they can provide a vehicle to ensure the positive impact that technology can have on economic growth, competitiveness, prosperity and security, is realized. The impact of cybercrime can be a destabilizing factor for these efforts. Regional organizations therefore also have to balance the sliding scale of capacities of the individual states and global institutions to tackle new sources of vulnerabilities, on the one hand, while encouraging adoption of technology for prosperity on the other.
