Citation[]
International Telecommunication Union, Understanding Cybercrime: Phenomena, Challenges and Legal Response (Sept. 2012) (full-text).
Overview[]
The purpose of this report is to assist countries in understanding the legal aspects of cybersecurity and to help harmonize legal frameworks. As such, the report aims to help developing countries better understand the national and international implications of growing cyberthreats, to assess the requirements of existing national, regional and international instruments, and to assist countries in establishing a sound legal foundation.
This report provides a comprehensive overview of the most relevant topics linked to the legal aspects of cybercrime and focuses on the demands of developing countries. Due to the transnational dimension of cybercrime, the legal instruments are the same for developing and developed countries. However, the references used were selected for the benefit of developing countries, in addition to a broad selection of resources provided for a more in-depth study of the different topics.
The report contains six main chapters. After an introduction (Chapter 1), it provides an overview of the phenomena of cybercrime (Chapter 2). This includes descriptions of how crimes are committed and explanations of the most widespread cybercrime offences such as hacking, identity theft and denial-of-service attacks. An overview of the challenges is also provided, as they relate to the investigation and prosecution of cybercrime (Chapters 3 and 4). After a summary of some of the activities undertaken by international and regional organizations in the fight against cybercrime (Chapter 5), it continues with an analysis of different legal approaches with regard to substantive criminal law, procedural law, digital evidence, international cooperation and the responsibility of Internet service providers (Chapter 6).