This course equips professionals with the knowledge to address cybercrime through international cooperation and diplomacy. It explains cybercrime risks and impacts, especially in the context of emerging digital technologies, and outlines the main international policy and cooperation frameworks that can be used by policymakers, diplomats, law enforcement authorities, the technical community, and all other relevant stakeholders to address cybercrime challenges. The course is taught by experts in cybersecurity and international relations.
APPLY FOR COURSE – €350
Fill out this form to start your application process for this course.
You will receive an email with instructions on how to continue.
N/B: Partial scholarships are available for participants from developing countries.
Cybercrime is raging globally. Rarely any internet user today has not been exposed to some attempt (successful or failed) of online fraud, scam, leak of personal information, compromise of individual social media or bank accounts, or even money theft. Small and medium enterprises, public institutions, and civil society organizations are increasingly being attacked by ransomware. Major financial institutions, companies and even critical infrastructure providers (energy supplies, hospitals or communications) have also become targets of financially motivated cyber attacks.
Victims, however, often feel helpless in terms of redress. Police and judicial institutions have limited knowledge and human capacities to process attacks that happen every day. Moreover, since almost all cybercrime attempts are global, law enforcement authorities face challenges in ensuring efficient cross-border cooperation. These challenges stem from the international legal instruments which are disputed and not yet widely embraced, national legal frameworks that are not harmonised across countries, occasional lack of political will to cooperate across borders, and complexity of cooperation with the global tech industry that provides services and store possible evidence. In contrast, global cooperation of cyber criminals seems to be very efficient.
Yet, hope that cybercrime can be pushed back seems to be ever more present, not least due to the recent adoption of the first UN Cybercrime Convention, coupled with the uptake of the existing Budapest Convention of the Council of Europe, and the cases of successful cooperation among law enforcement authorities through INTERPOL and Europol in dismantling global cybercrime and criminal networks. What can policymakers, diplomats, law enforcement and cybersecurity professionals do to strengthen international cooperation in combating cybercrime?
What will you learn?
- How is cybercrime evolving in the continuously changing technological environment (e.g. concerning encryption, cryptocurrencies, Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence)?
- What are the main economic and social impacts of cybercrime – and how reliable the data we have is?
- How can we define and classify cybercrime, and why is it so hard to reach a common international definition and terminology?
- Why are the traditional mutual legal assistance treaties ineffective in addressing trans-border cybercrimes?
- What mechanisms does the UN Convention on Cybercrime, adopted in 2024, bring to law enforcement authorities, policymakers and diplomats? At the same time, what are its drawbacks and how can it be abused?
- What do the other international and regional frameworks offer – in particular, the Budapest Convention of the Council of Europe and the Malabo Convention of the African Union, as well as bilateral inter-state agreements?
- How can countries and professionals benefit from the existing capacity building programmes offered by the UN, regional organisations, and the multistakeholder fora?
- What role does the private sector play, and how to embrace public-private partnerships and multistakeholder cooperation?
How will you learn?
This intensive 3-week online course addresses these topics through group readings, asynchronous knowledge exchange among participants and experts, weekly online discussion meetings, and the self-paced use of customised AI learning assistants.
With Diplo’s well-recognised, engaging, and interactive learning methodology, this course provides a space for exchanging experiences and views with a select group of professionals from around the world, as well as with course lecturers and experts.
Successful participants will be awarded a certificate of completion.
APPLY FOR COURSE – €350
Fill out this form to start your application process for this course.
You will receive an email with instructions on how to continue.
N/B: Partial scholarships are available for participants from developing countries.
This online course, as a deep dive into the cybercrime area, complements our longer and more intensive Cybersecurity course, which provides a much broader overview of cybersecurity policy, including understanding geopolitical cybersecurity risks, combating cybercrime, addressing risks of cyber conflicts through negotiating international peace and security frameworks, developing national policies and international cooperation and protecting critical infrastructure, and discussing the interplay between cybersecurity, economic development and human rights.
To learn more about the recent negotiations of the UN Cybercrime Convention, its prospects and possible drawbacks, visit our Digital Watch Observatory.