The Council of Europe settled on voluntary guidelines Wednesday to strengthen cooperation between the police and Internet service companies, starting a long process to build support for a common global system to combat cybercrime.
The ambition of the group is to build on its binding international treaty on cybercrime that has already been signed by 43 nations, including the United States, Japan and most Western European countries. Their aim is to help investigators obtain data quickly when tracking cybercrime that spreads across many national borders.
The guidelines — adopted at a special conference in Strasbourg of more than 200 people representing law enforcement agencies, trade groups for Internet service providers and companies ranging from Microsoft to eBay — are also a practical attempt to smooth uneasy confrontations that service providers complain are common when investigators seek information.
“Anybody can take them, use them if they like,” said Alexander Seger, who heads the council’s technical cooperation unit, which developed the guidelines over the past six months. “If service providers and law enforcement believe their cooperation is perfect, they may not need them,” Seger said. “But if they want to improve their cooperation, this may be useful for them.”
Seger noted that countries that signed the international treaty — which dates back to 2001 and defines forms of cybercrime like child pornography and fraud — wanted guidance for practical issues.
But trade industry groups sought to limit the pool of information that investigators could fish from, and expressed concern about the cost and liability of providing information to investigations that fail or go awry. Pavan Duggal, a lawyer and consultant on cybercrime legislation in India, recalled an incident where a service provider in India gave information in error to investigators, which resulted in the jailing of the wrong man.
The Council of Europe, based in Strasbourg, represents…