EU unveils plan to fight cybercrime

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January 31, 2001
Web posted at: 1:04 p.m. EST (1804 GMT)

by Paul Meller

(IDG) -- The European Commission Tuesday revealed details of its proposals to combat cybercrime, first announced late last year.

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Security on the net

'The freedom of the Internet, the source of its very success, has to be preserved,' said Commissioner in charge of Internet issues, Erkki Liikanen, announcing the proposals. But he added, "The fact also is: No security, no trust, no transactions.'

He said that the impressive growth forecasts for e-commerce will remain a 'pie in the sky' if people cannot trust electronic transactions.

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The Commission will present its paper on cybercrime to the Council of Ministers of the European Union (EU) and to the European Parliament. The paper outlines a policy to combat computer crime and describes the mechanisms necessary to achieve this without hindering rapid development of e-commerce in the EU or affecting citizens' fundamental right to privacy.

The paper proposes a number of legislative and nonlegislative actions. Legislative proposals include harmonizing member states' laws. In the short term, those relating to child pornography offenses and incitement to racism will be targeted, and in the longer term the commission will bring forward proposals to deal with criminal law on high-tech crime, including hacking and denial-of-service attacks.

Nonlegislative action proposed in the paper includes the creation of an EU Forum to raise public awareness and promote best practices in IT security. The forum will bring together representatives from law enforcement agencies, service providers, network operators, consumer groups and data protection authorities.

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FBI completes rollout of corporate cybercrime program
(Computerworld)
Survey: CIOs not worried about security
(Computerworld)
China strengthens laws against Internet crime
(The Industry Standard)
Honeypots wreak sweet revenge against cyber intruders
(Network World Fusion)
U.S. draws attention to information warfare threat
(InfoWorld.com)
Hacker breaks Egghead's security shell
(Computerworld)
U.N. team finds Ghana IT gains continue
(IDG.net)
Proposed cybercrime laws stir debate at conference
(Computerworld)

European Union
European Parliament

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