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INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION AS AN EFFECTIVE TOOL IN
COUNTERING CYBERCRIME
Sabyrbaeva Aynura Bakhyt kyzy
Doctor of Philosophy in Legal Sciences (PhD), Associate Professor
Academy of the MIA of the Republic of Uzbekistan
e-mail: a_sabyrbaeva@inbox.ru
phone: 77-007-7567
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13982565
In today's world, cybercrime poses a serious threat to global security and
economic stability. As A.A. Bessonov noted, "Modern cybercrime is a serious
threat both to individual states and to the entire world community" [1.231].
Unlike traditional crimes, which are often limited by geographical boundaries,
cyber attacks can be carried out from anywhere and exploit vulnerabilities in a
country's digital infrastructure. In order to counter cybercrime, it is necessary to
establish cooperation between law enforcement agencies of the countries.
However, achieving effective international cooperation is challenging due to
various obstacles such as legal differences, jurisdictional issues, technological
challenges and geopolitical tensions.
As K.K. Klevtsov rightly noted, "Most law enforcement agencies, when
investigating cybercrimes, intentionally or without intent, resort to the practice
of obtaining evidence physically located on the territory of other states
independently, without obtaining the consent of these states. This happens by
remotely connecting in real time to a subscriber device of a criminally
prosecuted person or removing such a device from a victim or witness located in
the territory of the State whose law enforcement agencies are conducting
proceedings on a cybercrime case, followed by an inspection to find information
relevant to the case, as well as by using other legal methods" [2.1]. However, in
order for this issue to be resolved without violating national sovereignty, it is
necessary to establish international cooperation, but this issue still remains
open due to a number of reasons. As noted by Hazel Diez Castaño, head of the
information security office at Banco Santander, "Cybercriminals have an
advantage on the battlefield: it is easier to attack than to defend, since protection
requires more effort and resources. Therefore, the public and private sectors
must work together to develop collective information on cyber threats and to
share detection, security and technology tools, as well as coordinated incident
response mechanisms. By joining forces and creating specific channels of
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cooperation, we will be able to achieve a decisive shift in the fight against
cybercrime" [3.1].
International cooperation in the fight against cybercrime is complicated by
the divergence of positions of different states of the world, due to basic
differences in approaches to defining concepts, the lack of a clear understanding
of the boundaries between various phenomena requiring different mechanisms
of cooperation, differences in approaches to ensuring the security of personal
data, the general level of mutual distrust, which makes it impossible to
cooperate on cross-border procedural partnership.
With regard to cybercrime, there is the following paradox: "on the one
hand, States are forced to cooperate to combat such a transnational threat as
cybercrime, but, on the other hand, such cooperation affects the sovereignty of
the State, limits it in the field of criminal law and information protection.
Therefore, cooperation is successful in regions with a high level of political trust
between countries, as it happens in the European Union" [4.38].
S. Brenner noted that "it is known that it is possible to effectively
counteract cybercrime only by joining forces. This is exactly the path taken by
the world's largest Internet service providers, who in 2005 announced the
conclusion of a global anti-hacker alliance, within which an early warning
system for hacker attacks on the Internet was created" [5.218]. In addition, in
2011, the International Cybersecurity Alliance was established in London,
designed to combat cybercrime on a global scale [6.1].
Despite various attempts by countries or individual organizations to
create any advantage over cybercriminals, their efforts remain in vain, as
confirmed by the results of the study "in 2023, the number of ransomware
attacks increased by 160% compared to the previous year" [7.1].
As some scientists have noted, "the legal analysis of international
cooperation and national legislation of various states indicates the absence of a
unified practice in combating cybercrime" [8.2], despite the existence of a
number of multilateral treaties on this issue, which, of course, negatively affects
this area of activity of states [9.2].
There are many challenges associated with international cooperation and
the development of international guidelines to combat cybercrime. Identifying
criminals across borders anywhere in the world, as well as conducting
investigations and securing electronic evidence, is in itself a difficult task. As
noted by Russell G. Smith "one of the important results of the very few
successful cases is an unprecedented demonstration of multilateral international
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cooperation between law enforcement agencies, the exchange of information
and evidence collection techniques, identification of violators and their arrest.
Nevertheless, this level of cooperation is the exception rather than the rule"
[10.2].
"Considering the factor of globalization of computer crime, it becomes
more obvious that today no state is able to independently counter this threat. At
the same time, an essential role in such cooperation belongs to international
legal mechanisms for regulating and interacting with law enforcement agencies
on countering and investigating computer crimes" [11.225].
As K. Klevtsov noted, "international cooperation in the field of criminal
proceedings in the field of cybercrime should be optimized by regulating at the
national level the timely provision of responses to requests for legal assistance,
since during pre-trial proceedings in this category of criminal cases, traditional
mechanisms of cooperation prevail within the framework of multilateral or
bilateral agreements or on the basis of the principle of reciprocity" [12.1]. It is
worth noting that the use of traditional forms of cooperation leads to the loss of
important information and the disclosure of cybercrimes due to lack of
efficiency.
Thus, international cooperation is a key point in eliminating the legal vacuum
that exists between the development of information technologies and the
response of legislation to them. The process of developing measures at the
international level, as experience shows, is in itself a complex problem.
However, this is the only way to reliably protect against electronic attacks.
List of used literature:
1. Bessonov S.A. History and foreign experience of legal regulation of computer
crime – The territory of science. No. 2. pp. 231-237. 2013.
2. Klevtsov K.K. 2022. "International cooperation in the fight against cybercrime
in the context of countering new challenges and threats." Bulletin of St.
Petersburg
University.
Law
3:
678-695.
https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu14.2022.306
3. Hazel Diez Castaño, Chief Information Security Officer at Banco Santander.
Annual
Meeting
on
Cybersecurity.
2023.
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/10/cybercrime-violent-crime/
4. Atnashev V.R., Yakheeva S.N. International cooperation in the fight against
cybercrime and cyberterrorism. Right. 2022. p. 38
5. Akopov G.L. Legal informatics: modernity and prospects: studies. stipend.
Rostov n/a, 2005. p. 218
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6. The International Cybersecurity Alliance has been established in London. URL:
http://www.vesti.ru/doc.html?id=499251
7. F.A.C.C.T. Analytical report "Cybercrime in Russia and the CIS. Trends,
analytics,
forecasts
2023-2024".
https://ict.moscow/research/kiberprestupnost-v-rossii-i-sng-2023-2024/
8.
Broadhurst, Roderic, Peter Grabosky, Mamoun Alazab, Steve Chon. 2014.
“Organizations and cybercrime:
9.
An analysis of the nature of groups engaged in cybercrime”. International
of Journal of Cyber Criminology 8 (1): p.
210. Russell G. Smith. “Investigating cybercrime: Barriers and Solutions”
Association od Certified Fraud Examiners, Pacific Rim Fraud Conference, Sydney,
11 September 2003, p.2
11. Buraeva L.A. Transnational computer crimes as a global threat to the world
community // Business in law. Economics and Law Journal. – 2016. – No.5. –
p.225.
12. Klevtsov K.K. 2022. "International cooperation in the fight against
cybercrime in the context of countering new challenges and threats." Bulletin of
St. Petersburg University. Law 3: 678-695.
