The proposed treaty covers the 43 countries in the Council, including Russia and several former Soviet republics. The U.S., Canada, and Japan officially have observer status but took part in the writing of the text. The approval by the Deputies group clears the way for approval by the European Foreign Ministers, on 8 November in Strasbourg, France. The final signatures take place in Budapest at the end of November.
The Council cites numerous studies and reports as justification for the convention, including many in the U.S. According to the FBI, some 5,000 systems are highly vulnerable to cyber-crime, which has the capacity to destabilize an entire national economy. Virus attacks cost the U.S. $12 billion a year and credit card fraud another $ 400 million. Studies in the U.S. and Europe suggest that the official reports of crime may be far short of the real incidences. Because of the potential embarrassment and loss of investor confidence, only about a third of the victims, many of them businesses, do not report computer-related crimes.
The convention has three main sections:
-- Harmonization of national laws defining specific criminal offenses
-- Definition of investigatory and prosecutorial procedures
-- Establishment of an effective system of international cooperation
Defining offenses
The convention sets two conditions for a criminal offense. First, offenses must be deliberate, and second, they must be able to affix clear legal responsibility to the offender. The offenses defined in the convention break down into four categories ...
1. Offenses against the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of computer data and systems, which include illegal access or interception, as well as interference with computer systems or data, and misuse of computer devices
2. Computer-related offenses, such as forgery and computer fraud
3. Content-related offenses, including child pornography, and the propagation of racist and xenophobic ideas over computer networks
4. Copyright infringement and pirating of protected works on a large scale
New procedures
The convention lists rules that promise to make it easier for the police to investigate computer crimes, with the help of new forms of mutual assistance. These rules include preservation of computer-stored data, preservation and rapid disclosure of data relating to computer traffic, system searches and seizures, real-time collection of traffic data, and interception of content data.
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