Cybercrime challenges discussed at the Octopus Conference 2016

The Council of Europe Octopus Conference 2016, held in Strasbourg from 16 to 18 November, gathered 300 cybercrime experts from 90 countries from all the stakeholders. The conference noted that cybercrime is increasing, while attacks against critical infrastructure, fraud, hate speech and terrorist activities were recognised as major threats. It was confirmed that the Budapest Convention, which celebrates its 15th Anniversary with 50 Parties of the treaty – Andora depositing the instrument of ratification during the meeting – remains the most relevant international agreement for combating cybercrime, both in terms of guidelines for national legislation and as a framework for capacity building and cooperation across stakeholders. Important improvements in legal environment have been recorded in Asia-Pacific, Africa and Latin America, mainly guided by the Budapest convention. Cooperation among stakeholders and law enforcement agencies was underlined as a key message of the conference.