Introduction

Cybercrime is a global plague that is combated by law enforcement throughout the world. Countries have suffered estimated billions in damages and been forced to update their legal structure to address this new form of crime. Cybercrime has led to the creation of new positions within law enforcement, new units in police departments, and new specialties for lawyers.

With traditional forms of crime, a person generally violates a law within a single jurisdiction. Cybercrime is different from other crime because a single offense can cross multiple jurisdictions even cross the globe itself. This scope has created legal and logistical problems that need to be addressed, forced cooperation between law enforcement throughout the world, and made obvious the need for governments to work together. Unfortunately, although the need is there, many governments have failed or fallen short of the objective to effectively deal with cybercrime.

In this appendix, we look at the special issues involved with international investigations and the problems that relate to them. We ll see how laws differ from one nation to another, the cooperative efforts between countries to combat cybercrime, and how jurisdictional and other obstacles can prevent cybercrimes from ever being prosecuted.

This appendix also provides the Web site addresses for reference material available on the Internet. The Web sites provide information on laws governing other countries, law enforcement Web sites, and background materials that are useful when investigating computer-related crimes on an international scale.

How Nations Are Updating Their Cybercrime Legislation

Because cybercrimes are committed throughout...