Fighting malware and spam

Fighting cybercrime: technical, juridical, and ethical challenges

Guillaume Lovet Fortinet

Since the massive rise of cybercrime in 2005, which now steadily drains several billion dollars (if not hundreds of billions) per year, a variety of challenges in efficiently fighting cybercriminals have been clearly identified. Clearly? Well, perhaps not.

While it is widely recognized that the big struggle against cybercrime is severely hampered by the combination of the 'no cyber-borders between countries' factor and the 'heterogeneous laws among them' factor, in-depth examinations of the issue are scarce, and often overlook key aspects of the problem. Beyond the juridical issues, the technical challenges involved in fighting cybercrime may be misunderstood by political deciders, and the ethical aspects often set aside - as demonstrated by the action various governments have taken lately to address the cybercrime issue.

This paper, reviewed by parties with technical, legal, or law enforcement backgrounds, will shed light on those aspects and attempt to answer the numerous questions subsequently raised: Do we need more processes for international cooperation? Would an 'Internetpol' be the solution, or is everything we need already in place at a juridical level, as we're only lacking will, knowledge, and concrete collaboration between deciders and experts? Could we end up endangering liberties in the process of addressing cybercrime?