On 5 July 2019, Eurojust and Europol published a joint report identifying and categorising the current developments and challenges they face in combating cybercrime.

To read all raport please click here

The report highlights the following significant issues:

1. Loss of data: Following the overturning of the Data Retention Directive (DRD) by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in case C-393/12 on 8 April 2013,law enforcement agencies and prosecutors face significant challenges in obtaining data from private parties which is a hindrance to the cross-border cybercrime detection. This situation has been exacerbated by the ECJ’s ruling of 21 December 2016 in the Tele2 Sverige and Watson cases (case C-203/15 and C-698/15) and the resulting requirements for targeted data retention and access criteria for competent authorities.
2. Loss of location: The increasing use of encryption and anonymisation tools, cryptocurrencies, the Dark Web and cloud storage have made it more difficult for law enforcement to be able to identify the physical location of the perpetrator, the criminal infrastructure or electronic evidence.
3. Challenges associated with national legal frameworks: Differences in domestic legal framework regimes in EU member states often create serious obstacles to international cybercrime investigations.
4. Obstacles to international co-operation: Owing to no common legal framework for the expedited sharing of evidence in the international context, significant delays occur before any retained data can be made available for criminal investigation or judicial proceedings. Current mutual legal assistance procedures are too slow to allow the timely gathering and sharing of electronic evidence.
5. Challenges of public-private partnerships: There is an overwhelming need to strike a legislative balance between privacy related needs and proportionate measures to allow the private sector to play their essential role in supporting law enforcement in the fight against cybercrime. Law enforcement professionals are concerned that the new ePrivacy Regulation may have a negative impact on the ability of these private companies to assist law enforcement.

The report identifies significant progress since the last report in 2017 but recognises that there is, in the face of the identified challenges, the need for further enhanced co-operation between all parties and the continued development of networks dedicated to best practice and knowledge sharing, such as the European Judicial Cybercrime Network (ECJN) and the Joint Cybercrime Action Taskforce