The growing threat of cybercrime is exacerbated by difficulties to access electronic evidence and to secure it, especially if information relevant for criminal investigations is in the hands of private companies and is found beyond national borders or stored in the cloud. Effective cooperation between criminal justice authorities and private sector entities, in particular Internet Service Providers (ISPs), is essential to protect societies against crime. Such cooperation concerns primarily access by police and prosecution services to data held by service providers, for criminal justice purposes, making use of the existing binding legislative framework as well as through voluntary cooperation, and extends further to the sharing of information.
In this context, the iPROCEEDS-2 project aims to support the project countries/area in building and maintaining partnerships with private sector entities, primarily ISPs, for reinforcing mechanisms for trusted cooperation between the private sector, citizens, and criminal justice authorities.
To this end, from July to September, the project delivered a practical exercise scenario that looked to test the cooperation between the ISPs, law enforcement, judicial and cybersecurity authorities in Serbia, Turkey, Kosovo*1 and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The three-day exercises focused on simulated computer incident and potential cybercrime against a private health Research Centre conducting COVID-19 research. The main objective was to give investigators, prosecutors, cybersecurity experts and private industry representatives a set of skills that are necessary for joint action against cybercrime, by reverting to use of preservation powers and production orders provided by Articles 16 and 18 of the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime.
These series will be continued and eventually rolled out to all project countries/areas.
iPROCEEDS-2 project webpage
*1This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSC 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo Declaration of Independence.