Halbheer revealed that the Council of Europe is currently organising a conference called ‘Octopus’ based on ‘Cooperation against Cybercrime’. Halbheer explains, “Cloud Computing is mentioned very often by the government officials. This is a big problem as this would be the basis for the development of joint activities.

There is a lot of education and knowledge transfer to be done.” He says he is unclear how far politicians really realise the need for international collaboration on such challenges. The security advisor believes the industry must support the work of police officers, judges and prosecutors worldwide. “The industry should make sure it doe its best to help them to get the right legislation in place and partnerships in place,” he said.

It seems that currently there is little or no legislation in many countries that makes it illegal to commit cybercrime. Halbheer said, “We need the countries to ratify, or at least follow the principles, of the Convention on Cybercrime as a basis to then train Law Enforcement and finally prosecutors and judges.” He added, “This should make cybercrime a reality in all the countries.”

A few years ago, the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime was signed within the Council of Europe, according to Roger Halbheer, Chief security advisor of software giant Microsoft. He added that since then has been ratified all across the globe. “It was ratified by a lot of countries or at least used as the base for legislation,” he said. Halbheer revealed that the Council of Europe is currently organising a conference called ‘Octopus’ based on ‘Cooperation against Cybercrime’.

Halbheer explains, “Cloud Computing is mentioned very often by the government officials. This is a big problem as this would be the basis for the development of joint activities. There is a lot of education and knowledge transfer to be done.”

He says he is unclear how far politicians really realise the need for international collaboration on such challenges. The security advisor believes the industry must support the work of police officers, judges and prosecutors worldwide. “The industry should make sure it doe its best to help them to get the right legislation in place and partnerships in place,” he said.

It seems that currently there is little or no legislation in many countries that makes it illegal to commit cybercrime.

Halbheer said, “We need the countries to ratify, or at least follow the principles, of the Convention on Cybercrime as a basis to then train Law Enforcement and finally prosecutors and judges.” He added, “This should make cybercrime a reality in all the countries.”

By Tamas S. Kiss, published on XpatLoop.com with the permission of BudapestReport.com