Prosecuting Cybercrimes under International Legal Frameworks: Challenges and Innovations

Abstract

Combating cybercrime is one of the most relevant areas of the legal community development since the widespread integration of digital technologies into all spheres of human activity demonstrates the need to regulate this sensitive area. The aims: are to study the international legal framework for countering cybercrime, as well as the system of challenges and innovations that exist in the modern world. Study design: 31 items of relevant scientific literature were analysed, which made it possible to comprehensively consider the issues of the article. Place and duration the study: The research took place during the second semester of the 2022-2023 academic years. Methodology: the main methods used in the article were the content analysis, forecasting method, and systematic method. Results: in the article modern interpretations of the term “cybercrime” were defined, certain legal international agreements that counteract its spread (primarily the Budapest Convention as an important current document of modern legal influence) and traces the mechanisms of counteraction and methods of their improvement were examined. Other important legal acts, such as the European Union Directive on the prevention of cyber-attacks on information systems and the European Commission Directive on combating fraud and other financial crimes on the Internet, were also considered. As a result, it was found that there were differences at the interstate level in the organisation of the cooperation, which included multilateral and bilateral agreements. The identified problems included insufficient interaction between the law enforcement agencies of different countries at the relevant stages, as well as the lack of an agreed mechanism for obtaining external data. The conclusions established that close ties at the level of international law enforcement systems aimed at addressing cybercrime issues could be effective in overcoming these difficulties.