There is no international definition of cybercrime. Broadly, cybercrime can be described as a broad concept encompassing cyber-dependent and cyber-enabled offences.
Cyber-dependent crime requires an ICT infrastructure and is often typified as the creation, dissemination and deployment of malware, ransomware, attacks on critical national infrastructure (e.g., the cyber-takeover of a power plant by an organized crime group), taking a website offline by overloading it with data (a DDoS [Distributed Denial of Service] attack) or accessing confidential client data.
Cyber-enabled crime can occur in the offline world but can also be facilitated by ICT. This typically includes online fraud, purchases of drugs online and online money laundering.
Considering the dimensions of cybercrime risks, the specialized areas involving and traversing this type of criminality, and the diverse capacitities that Member States have to prevent and counter it, the Global Programme on Cybercrime promotes long-term, sustainable capacity building to prevent and counter cybercrime through supporting national structures.
The programme integrates into its package of services technical assistance that goes from preventing to adjudication of crime; detecting to presenting digital evidence to the court; gathering and analyzing evidence; support to the investigation, prosecution and sentencing; in cyber-dependent and cyber-enabled crimes, including online child sexual abuse and exploitation and criminal/illicit use of virtual asset.
Specifically, UNODC draws upon its specialized expertise on criminal justice systems response to provide technical assistance in capacity building, normative assistance, prevention and awareness raising, cooperation, and research and analysis on cybercrime trends. This expertise is delivered through a holistic programmatic approach: capacity building/technical assistance, cooperation, and normative assistance/legal framework.
This approach is applied in areas of intervention where the Global Programme on Cybercrime carry out its activities, including cyber investigations, online child sexual abuse and exploitation, digital forensics, digital evidence, virtual assets and prevention.
