The Communication "Towards a general policy on the fight against cyber crime", adopted by the 27 Commissioners on 22 May 2007, addresses different kinds of criminal activity taking place on the internet:
- Child pornography and paedophilia According to Commissioner Frattini, this criminal phenomenon has increased by 1500% percent between 1997 and 2005. At the same time, the internet grew by 2700%.
- The construction of 'botnets' Online thugs infect computers with malicious software that turns them into nodes of networks that are being used for sending out spam or covering up criminal activity. Frattini says that 750,000 computers a year are infected in Germany alone. He mentioned figures of German police authorities which seem to indicate that this kind of activity increased by 11% during the second semester of 2006. 93% of computers affected are those of home users, who are generally more vulnerable due to insufficent protection mechanisms such as firewalls and anti-virus software.
- Online fraud The practice of phishing, where spoofed emails and websites are used to trick consumers into giving away data that can be used for stealing their money online, is increasing. Frattini cited figures from the UK, which indicate that bank fraud in that country has increased by 8000% within the past 2 years. He said that two criminal groups involved in online fraud being investigated currently have made profits exceeding US$100 million.
Frattini said: "These figures show why we need a European common approach."
The Commission Communication proposes the following measures:
- Improved European law enforcement co-operation, in particular reinforcing the structures for operational law enforcement cooperation;
- increased European public-private cooperation, starting with "a major conference to consider how cooperation can be strengthened";
- international cooperation, building on international initiatives such as Interpol, the Council of Europe or the G 8 Roma-Lyon High-tech crime group, and;
- Legislation. Frattini said: "We don't have a legal basis to take a legislative initiative. We do have a legal basis to propose a legislative intitiative on identity theft, and we will do so in 2008."
