“In less then two decades the Internet has become an essential element of our lifes – it is today used by millions and opens so far unknown possibilities of communicating and connecting with people all over the planet. But its rapid unregulated extension also opened new spaces for many abuses which threathen critical infrastructures, society, business and citizens|” Maria Farrar-Hockley, Head of the Operations Section for Justice and Home Affairs and Public Administration Reform, at the Delegation of the European Union to Bosnia and Herzegovina said at the seminar on “Cybercrime – the role of enforcement agencies and service providers,” held on 27 January in Sarajevo. The seminar was organised in Sarajevo by the EU funded project “Technical Assistance to the Communications Regulatory Agency”.
According to Maria Farrar-Hockley, media freedom and freedom of speech are core EU values, and the independence of regulators is a basic tenet of EU policy in this field, which is why the EU is giving support to the CRA through its capacity-building project which aims at supporting the harmonization of regulations in Bosnia and Herzegovina with EU requirements related to electronic communications, and to assure the effective implementation of the acquis communautaire in the field of electronic communications. The project is worth almost EUR 1 million and is financed through the EU’s Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance.
“The best EU practice for the fight against cyber crime is based on giving the best support and resources to law enforcement,” said Professor Ian Walden of London University, who gave the keynote lecture at yesterday’s seminar. He said the most common forms of cyber crime are viruses and software mailing, which endanger the integrity of a computer. Computers are also ideal instruments for the exchange of illegal materials, such as pirated music and films and obscene materials. As far as volume is concerned, content theft is the main problem, while in terms of value the most common crime is theft of user identity and, consequently, funds.
“There are two ways of fighting this, one is for computer users themselves to obtain the latest software with all the anti-virus programs, and the other is for those who provide us with Internet services to protect us from such illegal activities,” said Prof. Walden.
“The CRA has a certain capacity to fight this kind of crime but it is far below what needs to be done by the time Bosnia and Herzegovina becomes a member of the EU, so this IPA Project serves to enhance the capacities of the CRA in order to protect computer users from cyber crime,” said CRA Director General Kemal Huseinović. He added that legislative, police and investigative institutions must also give the CRA their support.
