Europe Council Looks to Fight Cybercrime

Date: September 16, 2004
Source: Newsday.com
By: Robert Wielaard

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- An international conference opened Wednesday amid warnings that companies, governments and individuals are increasingly vulnerable to Internet attacks by terrorists, hackers and others that rob them of privacy, money, and secrets.

The aim of the three-day Council of Europe meeting in Strasbourg, France, is to get governments worldwide to accelerate ratification of the council's 2001 Cybercrime Convention, the first international treaty to combat Internet crimes.

"It is urgent to get this important treaty ratified by as many nations as possible. The European Cybercrime Convention is not just a treaty for the European continent: it is one for all nations of this planet," Guy De Vel, the Council of Europe's legal affairs chief, said at the opening of the conference.

The event brings together law enforcement officials and Internet users, including private companies. It underscores that while the Internet's unregulated nature is widely seen as a problem in law enforcement terms, governments are slow to jointly combat Internet crime.

The 2001 cybercrime convention has been signed by 30 countries, including Canada, Japan, South Africa and the United States, that are not members of the 45-nation Council of Europe.
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