Like in 2009, CERT-Lexsi attended this week's Octopus Conference on Cybercrime at the Council of Europe.

I won't try to summarize 3 days of intense debates and presentations. You can find most of the presentations on the CoE website. Update: François Paget made also a good summary here and Roger Halbheer here (day 1 and 2).

I first want to thank the Council for all their work and commitment to these issues. This unique event brings together high-level law enforcement officers, prosecutors, regulators, industry experts...

I particularly appreciated the participation of bodies such as ICANN and RIPE to the event. I can't wait for the next ICANN meeting in Brussels to see if the issues discussed are really taken into account.

I also liked the momentum -particularly in South America and Africa- that receives the Budapest Convention. This treaty could indeed have a major impact on the fight against cybercrime in the long term. I hope new countries will soon join the initiative.

But I also regret that Ukraine and Russia have not express at any time their own views or some kind of support for the fight against cybercrime. It is even worse that no representative from China made the trip to Strasbourg.

I also publically emphasized the need for more involvement from the financial institutions and anti-money laundering authorities. I indeed strongly believe that cybercrime might be curbed by unabling cybercriminals to profit from their crimes. Technical, legal and financial barriers to commit cybercrimes are not high enough. That is why it is one of the less risky and most profitable criminal activity which attracts more people every day. On the legal aspect, modernisation of laws are indeed in progress and trying to fill the gaps in a lot of countries, but it will not be sufficient. More needs to be done to prevent cybercriminals from accessing and even setting up their own technical, financial and fiscal facilities.

Tomorrow, CERT-Lexsi will take part to another important law enforcement-oriented event, FIC 2010 in Lille. The fight continues...