Cybercrime is a complex and rapidly evolving transnational phenomenon that poses a significant threat to human rights, democracy and the rule of law as well as to national and international security. This is equally true for Southeast Asia, the most common types of cybercrime threats in recent years included cyber scams, business e-mail compromise campaigns, e-commerce data interception, crimeware-as-a-service, cryptojacking as well as online child sexual exploitation and abuse (OCSEA), trends that have additionally exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In view of strengthening the response to cybercrime and to the challenges of electronic evidence, a regional workshop was organised by the Office of the Attorney General of Thailand in cooperation with the Council of Europe through the Octopus Project, with the financial support of the Government of Japan, and aimed at fostering a deeper understanding of regional and domestic efforts, priorities, and challenges.

The event was attended by over 50 criminal justice representatives from seven countries in addition to Thailand - Brunei Darussalam, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam as well as representatives of INTERPOL, UNODC, UNDP (JIN – Judicial Integrity Network), US-DOJ, ASEANAPOL, ECPAT. All participants recognised the importance of criminal justice authorities to be equipped with both legislative and technical tools so as to enhance the investigative powers and collection of electronic evidence, the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime and international cooperation mechanism under this treaty being the best examples.

The Cybercrime Programme Office of the Council of Europe (C-PROC) has been working with criminal justice authorities worldwide for over 10 years to build legal and technical capacities in the areas of cybercrime and electronic evidence, having implemented more than 2000 activities within the framework of its projects.