Around 500 cybercrime experts from more than 100 countries, international organisations, the private sector, academia and civil society are gathering in Strasbourg for the Council of Europe’s 2026 Octopus conference. The event, which marks the 25th anniversary of the Convention on cybercrime (also known as the “Budapest Convention”), is taking place from 14 to 16 October.
The conference provides a global platform to reflect on 25 years of implementation of the convention, its contribution to international cooperation and the challenges facing cybercrime frameworks in the years ahead.
Crime lives in the gaps between legal systems
“Every cyberattack reaches past its victim into the institutions, rights and trust a free society runs on. Crime lives in the gaps between legal systems, but the Council of Europe’s common legal space is built to close them,” said Council of Europe Secretary General Alain Berset, at the opening of the conference.
“The convention has remained a relevant and operational instrument, despite technological and geopolitical changes,” said Monaco’s Secretary of State for Justice, Samuel Vuelta Simon. “The response to cybercrime must be swift and effective. It must enable evidence to be preserved and the perpetrators to be prosecuted, but it must also remain within the bounds of the law,” he added.
A collaborative platform for identifying policy gaps
The impact of artificial intelligence on cybercrime, trafficking and scam compounds, and cooperation with online service providers, in the context of the convention’s second additional protocol on enhanced cooperation and disclosure of electronic evidence and the European Union e-evidence framework, will be discussed.
Workshops and other sessions will explore disinformation and foreign manipulation, transnational repression, cyber-enabled international crimes, AI-generated child sexual abuse material, non-consensual dissemination of intimate images, and the illegal use of virtual assets.
Regional workshops will bring together participants from Africa, the Americas, Asia, the Pacific and the Caribbean, alongside lightning talks highlighting innovative ideas and practical experiences.
The conference also provides a forum for dialogue between public and private stakeholders and for international partners to share initiatives and approaches to strengthening cooperation against cybercrime.
Over 25 years, the convention has helped shape cybercrime legislation and international cooperation worldwide, while informing subsequent initiatives, including the United Nations treaty on cybercrime.
On the occasion of the conference, Kazakhstan ratified the Convention on cybercrime, bringing the total number of parties to 84.
The conference is organised in cooperation with the Presidency of Monaco of the Committee of Ministers, under the leadership of the Octopus Project. It is also supported by the Council of Europe’s Cybercrime Programme Office (C-PROC), which assists countries worldwide in strengthening criminal-justice responses to cybercrime and electronic evidence based on the convention and its additional protocols.
New study sheds light on AI-related cybercrime
Ahead of the conference, the convention committee, made up of the state parties to the Cybercrime Convention, approved [NC1] a mapping study on artificial intelligence and cybercrime, drawing on the practical experience of prosecutors and experts from more than 25 countries worldwide.
The study explores how AI intersects with cybercrime, including offences committed against AI systems, the use of AI to facilitate criminal offences, and the challenges of establishing criminal responsibility when AI systems are involved.
It examines threats such as data poisoning, prompt injection and model theft, as well as the use of AI to generate malware, ransomware and child sexual abuse material. It also considers the complex questions raised by increasingly autonomous or agentic AI systems, particularly where criminal conduct may not have been directly instructed or foreseen by the operator.
The study confirms that AI systems fall within the scope of the Budapest Convention’s definition of a computer system. It also highlights the potential of AI to support crime prevention and criminal justice, while stressing the importance of human oversight, transparency, accountability and safeguards for human rights and the rule of law.
The study recommends strengthening cooperation with the AI industry, service providers and civil society; developing practical resources on AI, cybercrime and electronic evidence; and promoting collaboration across relevant Council of Europe treaties, such as the Framework Convention on artificial intelligence and human rights, democracy and the rule of law and the Convention on the protection of children against sexual exploitation and sexual abuse.
By bringing together experience from across jurisdictions, the study provides a basis for further international cooperation in addressing the evolving challenges of AI and cybercrime.
New Council of Europe treaty to strengthen criminal asset recovery
On the sidelines of the conference, the Additional Protocol to the Convention on laundering, search, seizure and confiscation of the proceeds from crime and on the financing of terrorism (the “Warsaw Convention”) was opened for signature.
The new treaty modernises asset recovery frameworks to address increasingly sophisticated and transnational criminal networks, strengthening authorities’ ability to confiscate criminal assets, including crypto-assets.
