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15 ERA F. 1 (2014)

handle is hein.journals/erafrum15 and id is 1 raw text is: ERA Forum (2014) 15:1-8 DOI 10.1007/s12027-014-0333-4 E>I | tOAl Fighting cybercrime through prevention, outreach and awareness raising Laviero Buono E RA EUROPAD5CHE RECHTilAKAODEMI Published online: 22 January 2014 © ERA 2014 TRE°-TREVE5-TE °_ 1 Introduction A commonly repeated assertion concerning the internet it is that it is rapidly evolving and that cybercriminals are taking every possible advantages of this. The mantra that often follows is that this pace of development poses serious problems to law- makers who must attempt to catch up with these ever evolving phenomena. This is particularly difficult for European Union (EU) policy-makers since EU policy and legislation is, by definition, a combination (often a culmination, sometimes an accu- mulation) of agendas, proposals, impact assessments and revisions. According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the specialised agency for information and communication technologies of the United Nations, in 2013 over 2,7 billion people regularly made use of the internet. This corresponds to almost 40 % of the world's population. The spread of mobile broadband continued to grow, with more than 2 billion subscriptions worldwide by the end of 2013.1 There is little doubt that the increase in global connectivity is inseparably tied to the devel- opment of contemporary cybercrime in its various forms: on-line fraud, on-line child sexual exploitation, attacks against critical infrastructures and information systems, etc. The enablers of cybercrime are various. First, in relation to the issue of perceived anonymity, individuals are capable of committing crimes in cyberspace that they 1 International Telecommunication Unit The World in 2013 ICT Facts and Sheets, February 2013. All comments and views expressed in this article are those of the author alone. L. Buono, Head of Section for European Criminal Law ([) Academy of European Law (ERA), Trier, Germany e-mail: lbuono@era.int _ Springer