International legal regulation of transnational cybercrime in cyberspace

Abstract

The article considers the international legal regulation of combating cybercrime, which is considered as a transnational phenomenon. In the group of transnational crimes, along with drug trafficking, terrorist acts, money laundering, illegal import of migrants, human trafficking, firearms trafficking, counterfeiting, etc., cybercrimes play an important role in terms of public harm, unprecedented and rapid growth. The mechanisms and directions of the fight against cybercrime developed by international criminal law are studied, among which the international legal regulation is of fundamental importance, and difficulties in defining the concepts of "cybercrime" and "computer crimes" are noted. The classification of types of cybercrimes is given and their most characteristic features are revealed.
 The author analyzes the international normative documents that form the legal basis for regulating relations in the field of international cybercrime, among which the most prominent are conventions, including the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime of November 15, 2000, the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime of November 23, 2001 and Additional Protocol to it of January 28, 2003. The obligations of states to criminalize cybercrime in national legislation are analyzed, the types of illegal actions related to cybercrime are considered, in particular the main four groups of crimes classified in the 2001 Cybercrime Convention by Gender object and on specific grounds of the object of encroachment: 1) crimes against confidentiality, integrity and availability of computer data and systems; 2) offenses related to the use of computer tools; 3) offenses related to the content of data; 4) offenses related to infringement of copyright and compatible rights, as well as additional types of liability and sanctions (attempt, complicity). The Protocol to the 2003 Cybercrime Convention expands this range of crimes and contains obligations to criminalize the following acts: distribution of racist and xenophobic material through computer systems. The limitation of the 2001 Convention on Cybercrime, adopted by the Council of Europe, and the need to adopt a universal instrument that would significantly increase the fight against cybercrime are noted.