Waging war on hacking, porn

2007-05-23 14:03

Brussels - The European Commission on Tuesday unveiled new plans to fight cyber crime, including the publication of child pornography on the internet and electronic crimes such as hacking.

European Union member states must improve cross-border police co-operation to fight the spiralling number of criminal offences committed via the internet, the commission said.

It stressed that the new type of crime via internet was becoming increasingly sophisticated, profitable and internationalised.

The new EU move comes on the heels of Estonian claims that Russia is waging cyberwar by attacking Estonian websites after a row over the removal of a Soviet memorial in the country's capital Tallinn.

Russia, however, denies the accusations. "Cyber crime in Europe is a phenomenon which may originate or have its effects far beyond the borders of the EU," the commission said.

Combating cyber attacks

But commission officials told reporters that the bloc's executive was not working on tools to combat cyber attacks against EU members.

Nato has sent cyber-terrorism experts to Tallin to investigate the three-week denial of service assault on both official and private Estonian websites as well as the country's cellphone networks.

Cyber crime can be traditional forms of crime such as fraud or forgery, new crimes such as the posting of illegal content - racism, child pornography - on the internet and specifically electronic crimes such as attacks against information systems and hacking.

The commission urged member states to step up efforts in fighting cyber crime as the EU has no law-making competency in this area.

Many EU countries are reluctant to cede power on EU-wide crime laws to the commission, feeling this would curb national sovereignty.

But the EU executive insisted that the international character of cyber crime required more co-ordination at EU-level, warning that criminal offences via internet were becoming more and more serious.

Child porn on the increase

The number of websites publishing child pornography is estimated to have increased by 1 500% in the period 1997-2005, the commission said.

Bank frauds via the internet have grown by 8 000% in the last two years, it added. Police sources estimate that one single criminal group has made profits of over 100 million dollars from fraud over the internet in the last few years.

However, the commission stressed that these numbers could only be an indication of the scale of cyber crime due to the rapid development of internet activities.

Commission officials said the EU executive wants police forces to have access to credit card details of people buying child pornography on the internet.

A conference of law enforcement experts and the private sector would be held later this year to map out new strategies in the fight against cyber crime, the commission said. - Sapa-dpa

- SAPA