In the News.
Our General Counsel, Dr. David Wicki, LL.M. reviewed two legal frameworks designed to curb cybercrime. Published in
International Cyber Security Law Review 9/2020 (Springer)
The Budapest Convention and the General Data Protection Regulation:
acting in concert to curb cybercrime?
While the Convention on Cybercrime of the Council of Europe, the Budapest Convention, is the only binding international instrument on this issue, the GDPR is globally setting standards in data protection Law.
How are the two policies working together to curb cybercrime?
Abstract
Cybercrime concerns every person, every company, every authority and every public institution. The fact that the origin as well as the target of the criminal act can be located virtually everywhere around the globe sets a new challenge for lawmakers in their efforts to protect society. The increasing use and importance of the Internet of Things will create new conveniences for the public to enjoy and at the same time provide countless new entry points for hackers to gain access to devices, networks and valuable data, all of which might be abused for criminal intents.
The Budapest Convention on Cybercrime plays a crucial role in the fight against cybercrime by setting state of the art principle based criminal law standards and important procedural rules with regard to the provisional storage of data to be potentially used as evidence in prosecuting criminal acts.
GDPR is blazing the trail for the appropriate handling of data, and is thereby — albeit from a different starting point — significantly contributing to an improved data security framework and thus efficiently curbing cybercrime.