Criminal justice action on cybercrime

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Cybercrime and electronic evidence in the Eastern Partnership

The new joint project of the EU and the Council of Europe on Improving public/private cooperation on cybercrime and electronic evidence in the Eastern Partnership will be launched at a regional meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, from 6 to 7 April 2016.

 Meeting agenda

The project aims to support countries of the Eastern Partnership region to strengthen the current modalities for cooperation with the private sector (public-private cooperation) in cybercrime and electronic evidence. This will be achieved through improved capacities of institutions, reform of legislative framework, and support for common platforms for exchange of information and experience. The work under the project will rely on the relevant standards of the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime and other applicable standards and best practices for public-private cooperation, including but not limited to the “Guidelines for the cooperation between law enforcement and internet service providers in the investigation of cybercrime” adopted by the Council of Europe’s Octopus Conference in 2008.

The meeting will bring together criminal justice authorities, telecommunications regulators and major service providers to initiate the project and identify key issues as well as current initiatives regarding public/private cooperation in the Eastern Partnership region.

The Cybercrime@EAP III project is implemented by the Council of Europe’s Cybercrime Programme Office (C-PROC) in Romania.

Kyiv 6-7 April
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Efficient international cooperation, including expeditious mutual legal assistance is one of the most important conditions for effective measures against cybercrime and other offences involving electronic evidence given the transnational and volatile nature of electronic evidence. In practice, however, procedures are considered too complex, lengthy and resource intensive, and thus too inefficient. This is also true for the countries participating in the Eastern Partnership.

According to information available, police and judicial authorities in the six EaP countries:

  • typically request traffic and subscriber data via 24/7 points of contact, police-to-police cooperation, mutual legal assistance or directly from multi-national service providers. Content is rarely requested given the complexity of the procedures;
  • mostly send requests but increasingly also receive requests from abroad;
  • send/receive requests primarily related to fraud as well as organised crime. Increasingly they also cover offences against computer data and systems.

The six EaP countries are considered important sources and targets of cybercrime (and thus are of major concern for member states of the European Union and the Council of Europe), but the level of international co-operation on cybercrime and electronic evidence is extremely limited and very few requests for mutual legal assistance related to electronic evidence are sent or received.

Specific objective:  to enable efficient regional and international co-operation on cybercrime and electronic evidence

Indicators:

  • authorities responsible for mutual legal assistance have their capacities enhanced with regard to cybercrime and electronic evidence;
  • the effectiveness of 24/7 points of contact will be enhanced;
  • draft amendments to rules and procedures on mutual legal assistance will be available for adoption.