Introduction HIPCAR – Cybercrime/e-Crimes Society Issues, held in Saint Lucia on 8-12 March 2010 and in Saint Kitts and Nevis on 19-22 July 2010 (see Annexes). The explanatory notes to the model legislative text in this document were prepared by Dr. Marco Gercke addressing, inter alia, the points raised at the second workshop. This document therefore contains data and information as known in July 2010. Following this process, the documents were finalized and disseminated to all stakeholders for consideration by the governments of the HIPCAR beneficiary countries. 1.6. The Importance of Fighting Cybercrime In the last decades, computer crime and Cybercrime have become a major concern for law enforcement around the world. Since the debate about criminal abuse of computer and network technology started in the 1960s, the importance of the topic has constantly emerged.4 During half of a century of intensive debate, various solutions have been discussed to address the issue. However, especially due to constant technical developments as well as the changing methods as to how the offences are carried out, the issue remains on the agenda of both national governments and international/regional organisations. From the 1960s to the 1980s, computer manipulation and data espionage – often not covered by existing criminal legislation – and especially the development of a legal response, constituted the focus of the debate.5 This changed in the 1990s when graphical interface (“WWW”) was introduced and the number of websites and internet users started to grow dramatically. It then became possible to make information legally available in one country and enable users anywhere in the world to download it – even in those countries where the publication of such information was criminalised.6 In the last few years, the debate has been dominated by new, very sophisticated methods of committing crimes such as “Phishing7”, “Botnet8 Attacks” and the emerging use of technologies that are more difficult for law enforcement to investigate, such as “Voice-over-IP (VoIP) communication”9 and “Cloud Computing”10. The ability to fight Cybercrime is essential for both developed and developing countries. With a growing dependence on the availability of networks and computer systems11 as well as the growing number of Internet users, crimes committed by using information technology will most likely become more frequent and potentially more severe. In order to protect users that have started to integrate network services such as e-mail, communication through social networks and electronic banking, countries must have the 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Regarding the early discussion about computer crime see: Bequai, Computer Crime, 1978; Blanton, Computer Crime, 1978; Coughran, Computer abuse and criminal law, 1976; MacIntyre, Computer and Crime, 1977; McKnight, Computer Crime, 1973; Parker, Crime by Computer, 1976; Rose, An analysis of computer related crime: A research study, 1977; Sokolik, Computer Crime: Its setting and the need for deterrent legislation, 1979; Wilson/Leibholz, User’s Guide to Computer Crime: Its Commission, Detection and Prevention, 1969. See for example: Nycum, The criminal law aspects of computer abuse: Applicability of federal criminal code to computer abuse, 1976; Sieber, Computerkriminalitaet und Strafrecht, 1977. Regarding the transnational dimension of cybercrime see: Sofaer/Goodman, “Cyber Crime and Security – The Transnational Dimension” in Sofaer/Goodman, “The Transnational Dimension of Cyber Crime and Terrorism”, 2001, page 7. The term “phishing” describes an act that is carried out to make the victim disclose personal/secret information. The term “phishing” originally described the use of e-mails to “phish” for passwords and financial data from a sea of Internet users. The use of “ph” linked to popular hacker naming conventions. For more information see: Understanding Cybercrime: A Guide for Developing Countries, ITU 2009, Chapter 2.8.4. Botnets is a short term for a group of compromised computers running a software that are under external control. For more details, see Wilson, Botnets, Cybercrime, and Cyberterrorism: Vulnerabilities and Policy Issues for Congress, 2007, page 4. Simon/Slay, “Voice over IP: Forensic Computing Implications”, 2006. Velasco San Martin, Jurisdictional Aspects of Cloud Computing, 2009; Gercke, Impact of Cloud Computing on Cybercrime Investigation, published in Taeger/Wiebe, Inside the Cloud, 2009, page 499 et seq. See in this regard: Understanding Cybercrime: A Guide for Developing Countries, ITU, 2009, page 65. > Model Policy Guidelines & Legislative Text 7