or carried across their telephone lines. By contrast, those arguing for ISPs to assume greater liability from the start prefer to construe ISPs as newspaper publishers who should be responsible for the material on their servers. That said, liability often attaches once ISPs become aware of illicit activity and fail to act accordingly. Similar liability attaches to other service providers, such as bulletin board operators and proprietary information providers. It has been argued that, while many have called for harmonization, “uniformity is both illusory and unnecessary”.74 Cooperation with the private sector, including PPPs play a vital part in the fight against cybercrime, especially, and to reiterate, as the private sector, and not government, either owns or operates so much essential infrastructure and provides essential services. According to INTERPOL, “The complex and ever-changing nature of the cyber threat landscape requires high-level technical expertise, and it is essential that law enforcement collaborates across sectors to effectively combat cybercrime and enhance digital security.”75 In announcing its support for PPP cybersecurity initiatives last year, the US White House observed that “[c]urrent [PPPs] in this space have at best unclear or ill-defined roles and responsibilities for the industry and government partners.”76 The vastness of cybercrime is beyond the means of government: law enforcement is both unprepared and unable to fully scale-up to a fast-growing threat landscape. The greater the communication and coordination between public and private sectors, the greater society’s resilience and ability to evolve to meet cybersecurity threats. However, there is a lack of cooperation between governments and the private sector on matters of cybersecurity. US President Barack Obama highlighted this concern with his Executive Order aiming at encouraging better information sharing between the public and private sectors on cyberattacks.77 President Obama said the following: “[T]he cyber threat is one of the most serious challenges to national and economic security that we face as a nation” and that “the economic prosperity of the United States in the twenty-first century will depend on cyber security”.78 In Europe,79 only a handful of European countries have an established framework for PPPs on cybersecurity.80 Case 1.3: In the matter of the Search of an Apple iPhone (USA)81 Though not technically a “cybercrime” case, the FBI went to court to compel Apple, Inc. to create a software tool that would help the FBI gain access to a locked iPhone that belonged Page 23 | Chapter 1 | § B. Phenomenon & Dimensions of Cybercrime Table of Contents