The Council of Europe is holding a three-day conference to encourage more countries, both inside and outside Europe, to sign its Cybercrime Convention, which is the first international treaty to address electronic crimes. The treaty is controversial: on the one hand, computer crime is overtaking more traditional criminal activities. In Germany, for example, computer crime was just 1.3% of recorded crime, but it accounted for 57% of the financial damages arising from crime.
However, critics point out that the treaty expands law enforcement authority, and has insufficient safeguards. It will allow countries to exchange information without regard to data protection, for example.
Eight countries have ratified the treaty so far, which came into force in July 2004.