CyberEast – Action on Cybercrime for Cyber Resilience in the Eastern Partnership Region

Summary

Project CyberEast is a joint project of the European Union and the Council of Europe, implemented in the Eastern Partnership region by the Council of Europe under the European Neighbourhood East Instrument (ENI).

The project aims at adopting legislative and policy frameworks compliant to the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime and related instruments, reinforcing the capacities of judicial and law enforcement authorities and interagency cooperation, and increasing efficient international cooperation and trust on criminal justice, cybercrime and electronic evidence, including between service providers and law enforcement.

CyberEast project is a direct follow-up to previous capacity building efforts in the Eastern Partnership and continues to build upon similar themes – strong legislative framework implementing the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime, enabling efficient regional and international cooperation, and improving public/private cooperation regarding cybercrime and electronic evidence in the Eastern Partnership region. The project also features new focus on enhancing the operational capacities of cybercrime units, increasing accountability, oversight and public visibility of action on cybercrime, as well as strengthening interagency cooperation on cybercrime and electronic evidence, in particular by improving information sharing between Computer Security Incident Response Teams (CSIRTs) on incidents and attacks with all concerned authorities.

Priority Countries

Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Republic of Moldova, Ukraine

 Target Groups

• Ministries of Internal Affairs, national police units and specialized investigative agencies (such as Investigative Committees, financial investigators, etc.);
• Ministries/Agencies responsible for State Security (cybercrime investigations, operative activities and international cooperation);
• Ministries of Justice (legislative units, cybercrime/security strategies and international cooperation officers);
• Prosecution Offices (cybercrime prosecutions and international cooperation);
• Judiciary (cybercrime/electronic evidence related criminal justice capacities);
• Training institutions for all above criminal justice agencies (Police Academies, Prosecution training centres, Judicial Schools, etc.)
• Governmental or national Computer Security Incident Response Teams (CSIRTs);
• National communications regulators;
• Personal data protection agencies;
• Internet service providers and industry associations;
• Civil society, academia and public at large for communications and visibility purposes.

Overall objective

To increase and enhance the cyber-resilience and criminal justice capacities of the Eastern Partnership countries to better address the challenges of cyber threats and improve their overall security.

Specific objective

To strengthen criminal justice capacities of Eastern Partnership countries on cybercrime and electronic evidence in terms of legislation and policies, capacities for investigation, prosecution and adjudication as well as international and public/private cooperation, in line with the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime and the EU 20 Deliverables for 2020.

Objectives

1.  To adopt legislative and policy frameworks compliant to the Budapest Convention and related instruments.

Outcomes/objectively verifiable indicators:

• Availability of cybercrime strategies or action plans (drafted/adopted) and extent to which existing cybercrime policy documents have been reviewed/updated;
• Level of compliance with all three regulatory pillars (substantive, procedural and international cooperation) of the Budapest Convention and with relevant provisions of the Lanzarote and Istanbul Conventions.
• Reforms of criminal procedure laws completed, draft amendments available.
• Level of reforms implemented for the regulatory framework to address issues of Article 15 Budapest Convention.

 2. To reinforce the capacities of judicial and law enforcement authorities and interagency cooperation.

Outcomes/objectively verifiable indicators:

• Extent to which the capacities and competencies of cybercrime units (law enforcement and criminal justice authorities) are improved;
• Availability of training plans;
• Number of training and simulation exercises and participants trained;
• Availability of procedures on CERTs/CSIRT – law enforcement cooperation on data sharing;
• Extent to which the capacities of data protection and oversight mechanisms exist;
• Cybercrime-centric public communication campaign on-going;
• Availability of procedures and practices serving to assure trust with general public and private entities.

3. To increase efficient international cooperation and trust on criminal justice, cybercrime and electronic evidence, including between service providers and law enforcement.

Outcomes/objectively verifiable indicators:

• Number of requests handled by 24/7 contact points;
• Time needed for processing MLA requests related to cybercrime/e-evidence;
• Number of cases where templates have been used;
• Number of training events and participants trained;
• Availability of cooperation agreements concluded and extent to which the existing ones have been revised.

Outcome

1. To adopt legislative and policy frameworks compliant to the Budapest Convention and related instruments.

1.1   National action plans or similar strategic documents regarding criminal justice response to cybercrime and electronic evidence developed.

1.2   Substantive criminal law, if necessary, in line with Articles 2 to 12 of the Budapest Convention and selected provisions of the Istanbul and Lanzarote Conventions revised and improved.

1.3   Procedural law for the purposes of domestic investigations in line with Articles 16 to 21 of the Budapest Convention improved.

2.  To reinforce the capacities of judicial and law enforcement authorities and interagency cooperation.

2.1   Skills and institutional setup of operational cybercrime units in law enforcement authorities’ and judicial authorities dealing with cybercrime and electronic evidence strengthened.

2.2   Improvement of interagency cooperation of the relevant law enforcement and criminal justice authorities, agencies and bodies including through improved data sharing.

2.3   Internal and external accountability and oversight including role of civil society organisations reinforced.

2.4   Improved public communication and transparency on cybercrime actions.

2.5   Reinforce mechanisms for trusted cooperation between the private sector, citizens and criminal justice authorities.

3.   To increase efficient international cooperation and trust on criminal justice, cybercrime and electronic evidence, including between service providers and law enforcement.

3.1   Skills, set up and competencies of the 24/7 points of contact further strengthened.

3.2   Guidelines and procedures for mutual legal assistance and data requests in place.

3.3   Operational skills for international judicial and police authorities cooperation on cybercrime strengthened.

3.4   Implementation of existing agreements on public/private cooperation and conclusion of such agreements in the remaining countries.