Skr. 2016/17:213 property rights. Other types of crime, such as unlawful threat and defamation, also occur via the internet. In addition, in many preliminary investigations, relevant information or evidence can be obtained on the internet or in an information system, even if the offence itself has not been committed in such an environment. A characteristic feature of cybercrime is that it is cross-border, e.g. through denialof-service attacks from one country to another or fraud carried out from a server in a country in which it can be very difficult to investigate the crimes. There are also many examples of crimes that have no link to countries other than Sweden, but where information decisive to the investigation is held by a company in another country. This might, for example, involve threats and violations on social media. In its report Elements of IT in criminal activity (2016:17), Brå makes the summary assessment that the judicial system faces major future challenges and that the investments made so far in the IT area do not correspond to the need. Brå finds, inter alia, that there is a great need for training within the Swedish Police Authority and the Swedish Prosecution Authority, that the cutting-edge expertise of IT investigators needs to be ensured, that the staffing of IT forensic activities needs to increase and that knowledge at the authorities’ expert functions needs to be utilised better. In its audit of whether the Swedish Police Authority and the Swedish Prosecution Authority have preparedness for processing and investigating cybercrime appropriately and effectively, the Swedish National Audit Office draws conclusions that are partly in accord with those of Brå (RIR 2015:21). Adaptation of legislation In order to create better conditions for combating cybercrime, the Government has taken a number of measures to obtain a better adapted legislation. In recent years, several amendments have been made in the penal legislation. These include the introduction of a new crime in the Swedish Penal Code, unlawful use of identity. Furthermore, on 1 July 2017, the Penal Code will introduce a new crime, gross invoice fraud, in order to resolve the problems of fraud using “scam invoices”. Work is also under way to produce proposals to enhance the penal protection of personal privacy. In a referral to the Council on Legislation of 8 June 2017, the Government proposed that protection against threats and violations be enhanced and modernised. The proposal includes a new crime making it punishable to disseminate certain images and data that are sensitive in terms of privacy. Furthermore, proposals are currently being produced for amendments to the legislation concerning contact with a child for a sexual purpose, known as grooming, which often takes place via the internet. A review of the child pornography crime has also been initiated. Work is also being done to ratify the Council of Europe’s Convention on Cybercrime (ETS 185). Furthermore, a number of issues aimed at modernising the legislation on coercive measures are currently being investigated. For example, the rules on seizure in criminal investigations were mainly designed before the advent of IT in society and are therefore not adapted to application in IT environments. Another issue being investigated involves the increasing difficultly to execute decisions on the covert interception of electronic communications since suspects are increasingly encrypting their communications. For the law enforcement authorities, access to information on electronic communications is very important to their ability to investigate both cybercrime and other crime. However, in a preliminary ruling of 21 December 2016 (in joined cases C-203/15 and C-698/15), the Court of Justice of the European Union came to the 19

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