Abstract
Advanced methods of electronic crime have developed in recent years and perpetrators’ motive remains mainly the gain of economic profit. The use of the internet and networks as tools to achieve their purpose and the disguise they offer, render their use ideal for the commission of a ‘perfect crime’. States and international organisations seem unable to respond equally fast or effectively to the danger of the development of new crimes. However, there is more awareness of the issues involved and legal measures and proposals have been advanced at EU-level and internationally.
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Notes
- 1.
Smith (2010), pp. 273–301.
- 2.
- 3.
- 4.
McNally and Newman (2008).
- 5.
18 U.S. Code 1028(a).
- 6.
Roberson (2008), p. 3.
- 7.
‘Results of the Second Meeting of the Intergovernmental Expert Group to Prepare a Study on Fraud and the Crime Misuse and Falsification of Identity’ (E/CN.15/2007/8), 2 April 2007.
- 8.
https://pdf.ic3.gov/2015_IC3Report.pdf, 2015 Internet Crime Report.
- 9.
Comparative Study on Legislative and Non Legislative Measures to Combat Identity Theft and Identity Related Crime:Final Report TR-982-ECNEIL ROBINSON, HANS GRAUX, DAVIDE MARIA PARRILLI, LISA KLAUTZER AND LORENZO VALERIJune 2011 Prepared for DG Home Affairs.
- 10.
Sproule and Archer (2006).
- 11.
Summers et al. (2014).
- 12.
- 13.
- 14.
Summers et al. (2014). It refers to Directive 95/46/EC as an example, which protects the rights of individuals ‘to privacy with respect to the processing of their personal data’ and which places a duty of care upon those holding personal data.
- 15.
Supra n. 11, p. 247.
- 16.
By the Federal Trade Commission of the United States, in Parliamentary Assembly, “Europe’s fight against economic and transnational organised crime: progress or retreat?”, 2001, available at http://www.assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/X2H-Xref-ViewHTML.asp?FileID=9242&lang=en.
- 17.
Anti-Phishing Working Group, ‘Phishing Activity Trends ReportQ 1st Quarter 2014 (2014) 2–7.
- 18.
Supra n. 17.
- 19.
Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council and the Committee of the Regions: Towards a general policy on the fight against cyber crime (COM(2007) 267 finalof 22.5.2007), Available at http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=URISERV%3Al14560.
- 20.
- 21.
- 22.
- 23.
- 24.
- 25.
Zetter (2016).
- 26.
Evans (2015).
- 27.
Borzykowski (2016).
- 28.
Microsoft Malware Protection Centre, https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/portal/mmpc/shared/ransomware.aspx.
- 29.
O’Gorman and McDonald (2012).
- 30.
Supra, note. 27.
- 31.
- 32.
Constantin (2016).
- 33.
Supra n. 32.
- 34.
Supra n. 16.
- 35.
Supra n. 16.
- 36.
- 37.
- 38.
Supra n. 37, Chapter II, Section 1.
- 39.
Supra n. 37, Articles 2–8.
- 40.
Iglezakis (2016).
- 41.
Regulation 910/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of July 23, 2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market and repealing Directive 1999/93/EC, OJ L 257.
- 42.
Supra n.41, Iglezakis I (Ed.).
- 43.
- 44.
Weber (2003).
- 45.
Supra n. 45.
- 46.
Supra n. 45.
- 47.
‘Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council and the Committee of the Regions: Towards a general policy on the fight against cyber crime (COM(2007) 267 final of 22.5.2007) http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=URISERV:l14560&from=EN.
- 48.
Joint Communication to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and social Committee and the Committee of the Regions ,Cybersecurity Strategy of the European Union:An Open, Safe and Secure Cyberspace, JOIN(2013) 1 final. Available at https://eeas.europa.eu/policies/eu-cyber-security/cybsec_comm_en.pdf.
- 49.
Directive 2000/31/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 June 2000 on certain legal aspects of information society services, in particular electronic commerce, in the Internal Market (OJ L 178, 17.7.2000, p. 1).
- 50.
Directive 2002/58/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 July 2002 concerning the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the electronic communications sector (Directive on privacy and electronic communications), OJ L 201.
- 51.
Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social committee and the Committee of the Regions - A strategy for a Secure Information Society - “Dialogue, partnership and empowerment”,COM(2006) 251.
- 52.
Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social committee and the Committee of the Regions On Fighting spam, spyware and malicious softwareCOM(2006) 688.
- 53.
Regulation (EC) No 460/2004 establishing the European Network and Information Security Agency (OJ L 77,13.3.2004, p. 1).
- 54.
- 55.
COM/2007/0267 final, available at http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:52007DC0267&from=EN.
- 56.
COM(2000) 890, 26.1.2001.
- 57.
OJ L 69, 16.3.2005, p. 67.
- 58.
OJ L 149, 2.6.2001, p. 1.
- 59.
Article 1(a) of the Council Framework Decision 2001/413/JHA of 28 May 2001 on combating fraud and counterfeiting of non-cash means of payment [2001] OJ L149/1.
- 60.
Supra n. 60, Article 2(a).
- 61.
Supra n. 60, Article 2(b).
- 62.
Supra n. 60, Article 2(d).
- 63.
Gercke (2009).
- 64.
Report from the Commission, 20 April 2004, COM (2004) 346 final, and Report from the Commission, 20 February 2006, COM (2006) 65 final.
- 65.
Most notably, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Austria, Greece and Luxembourg.
- 66.
- 67.
Supra n. 67, p. 4.
- 68.
Directive 2011/93/EU replacing Council Framework decision 2004/68/JHA.
- 69.
Directive (EU) 2016/1148 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 July 2016 concerning measures for a high common level of security of network and information systems across the Union, available at http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?toc=OJ%3AL%3A2016%3A194%3ATOC&uri=uriserv%3AOJ.L_.2016.194.01.0001.01.ENG.
- 70.
Supra n. 70, Article 16(4)(e).
- 71.
- 72.
europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-16-2422_en.pdf.
- 73.
- 74.
- 75.
Global Economic Survey of 2016 by WaterHouseCoopers.
- 76.
Supra n. 76, p. 19.
- 77.
Supra n. 76, p. 18.
- 78.
Supra n. 76.
- 79.
Reported by Jeremy Wright QC MP, at the Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime. The model for such provision will be as per section 7 of the Bribery Act, which was viewed with widespread alarm in the business community and it was argued that it was unfair, heavy and put the onus of proof on the firms , cited in www.ubdeoebdebt.co.uk/news/business/news/companies-face-prosecution-if-they-fail-to-stop-economic-crime-9706296.html, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/companies-face-prosecution-if-they-fail-to-stop-economic-crime-9706296.html.
- 80.
Supra n.76. In the report, it was estimated that close to half of the organisations surveyed believe that local law enforcement is not adequately resourced to investigate economic crime, leaving the responsibility for fighting economic crime on organisations.
- 81.
On 5 September 2016, in the Cambridge Symposium on Economic crime, available at https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/attorney-general-jeremy-wright-speech-to-the-cambridge-symposium-on-economic-crime.
- 82.
- 83.
Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation).The Regulation entered into force on 5 May 2016 and shall apply from May 2018.
- 84.
A recent Directive with direct relevance to the protection of business secrets is Directive (EU) 2016/943 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 June 2016 on the protection of undisclosed know-how and business information (trade secrets) against their unlawful acquisition, use and disclosure.
- 85.
Russell (2014).
- 86.
Inter alia, United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances of 1988, United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime, 2008 Convention of the Council of Europe on laundering, search, seizure and confiscation of the proceeds of crime and on the financing of terrorism.
- 87.
- 88.
Supra n. 88, Art.3(c).
- 89.
Supra n. 88, Art.3(h).
- 90.
Dadourian guidelines, in the case of Dadourian Group Int. Inc v Simmes & Others [2006] EWCA Civ 399.
- 91.
Clough (2015).
- 92.
Most notably, the United States.
- 93.
Clough (2010).
- 94.
Supra n. 94, p. 376.
- 95.
Council Framework Decision 2005/222/JHA.
- 96.
Robinson et al. (2011).
- 97.
2007 Study for the Centre for Identity Management and Information Protection (CIMIP), in http://www.utica.edu/academic/institutes/cimip.
- 98.
Vieraitis et al. (2014).
- 99.
Jougleux (2012).
- 100.
Supra n. 100.
- 101.
Section 2(1)(a) of Fraud Act 2006.
- 102.
Section 2(1)(b) of Fraud Act 2006.
- 103.
Section 2(2)(b) of Fraud Act 2006.
- 104.
Savirimuthu (2008), p. 188.
- 105.
Wright (2006).
- 106.
Supra n. 106.
- 107.
[2014] EWCA Crim 695.It has been brought under the Computer Misuse Act 1990 together with the Fraud Act 2006.
- 108.
[2012] EWCA Crim 1645; [2013] 1 Cr. App. R. (S) 76.
- 109.
[2012] EWCA Crim 973; [2013] 1 Cr. App. R (S.) 11.
- 110.
Simmons (2016), also citing Sun Beale S., The Many Faces of Overcriminalization: From Morals and Mattress Tags to Overfederalization, 54 Am U.L. Rev., 747 (2005), Struntz W., The Pathological Politics of Criminal Law, 100 Mich. L. Rev. 505 (2001).
- 111.
18 U.S. Code § 1030.
- 112.
- 113.
Supra n. 111.
- 114.
2010 WL 9552416 (D.NJ.2010), as referred to in Simmons R., The Failure of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act: Time to Take a New Approach to Regulating Computer Crime, George Washington Law Review No. 329, 2 February 2016.
- 115.
A recent preliminary ECJ ruling in Joined Cases C-203/15 and C-698/15 Tele2 and Watson (Grand Chamber) of 21 December 2016 concerned the retention of data and distinguished the cases where such retention is legal and the cases where it breaches rights. “Article15(1) of Directive 2002/58, read in the light of Articles7, 8 and 11 and Article52(1) of the Charter, must be interpreted as precluding national legislation which, for fighting crime, provides for the general and indiscriminate retention of all traffic and location data of all subscribers and registered users relating to all means of electronic communication” (paragraph 112) and concluded that Article 15 and the EUCFR “must be interpreted as precluding national legislation governing the protection and security of traffic and location data and, in particular, access of the competent national authorities to the retained data, where the objective pursued by that access, in the context of fighting crime, is not restricted solely to fighting serious crime, where access is not subject to prior review by a court or an independent administrative authority, and where there is no requirement that the data concerned should be retained within the European Union.” (paragraph 125).
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Papantoniou, M. (2017). Economic Fraud Crimes on the Internet: Development of New ‘Weapons’ and Strategies to Annihilate the Danger. In: Synodinou, TE., Jougleux, P., Markou, C., Prastitou, T. (eds) EU Internet Law. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64955-9_17
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