On Friday 31 January, the European Union’s Judicial Cooperation Unit, Eurojust, and the European criminal police agency, Europol, published their annual report, ‘Common Challenges in Cybercrime’, outlining a range of issues relating to cybercrime.
The 2024 edition also details the new legislative tools adopted to enhance the effectiveness of measures to combat these crimes, whose “borderless nature” makes international cooperation “essential”.
The report notes the enhanced cooperation between Eurojust and Europol, which was illustrated during an operation carried out in February 2024 against the ‘LockBit’ ransomware group, during which 34 servers were dismantled in several countries, both within and outside the EU, leading to the seizure of more than 200 cryptocurrency accounts used by cybercriminals.
The exponential increase in the volume of data processed by the authorities is also highlighted: some investigations involve terabytes or even petabytes of data. In addition, the processing of cases is slowed down by the difficulties many investigation departments have in recruiting and training qualified staff.
Another issue: regulatory constraints complicate access to digital evidence. The disparity of data retention regimes within the EU limits the ability of investigators to obtain key information. In some countries, data is deleted after just a few days.
In addition, the increasing use of networks that prevent identification, such as VPNs and end-to-end encryption used by criminals, is hampering lawful interception.
However, several legislative instruments have been adopted to facilitate the work of the authorities.
The 2023 legislative package on electronic evidence (see EUROPE 13074/15) allows judicial authorities to order their production with response times reduced to 10 days, or even 8 hours in urgent cases.
The Digital Services Act of 19 October 2022 aims to increase the transparency of online platforms and strengthen the accountability of digital service providers.
The first European legislation on artificial intelligence (‘AI Act’), which came into force on Monday 3 February, provides a framework for its use in criminal investigations.
The report points out that the effectiveness of these measures depends on their rapid adoption and integration by the Member States, and recommends strengthening the technical capabilities of law enforcement agencies and harmonising data processing models to speed up cross-border investigations.
Finally, closer cooperation with the private sector is considered essential.
Link to the report: https://aeur.eu/f/fc5 (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)