A growing global problem is computer crime, or cybercrime. According to an estimate by Europol, victims of cybercrime would suffer a combined annual damage of 290 billion euros worldwide.

That amount is larger than the amount involved in the global drug trade. According to the Central Bureau of Statistics' security monitor, about 1 in 8 Dutch people faced cybercrime in 2013.

Identity fraud is the most common, followed by procurement and sales fraud, bullying and hacking. Hacking is big business. Around the world, hackers are constantly looking for vulnerabilities in the security systems of all kinds of institutions. Information about the vulnerabilities found is then sold for big money to companies, criminal organisations and national security agencies. Security services like the NSA even seem to use this information for corporate espionage.

Even those people who think they have nothing to hide from the security services would do well to protect themselves well against cyber attacks. Even through fake Facebook and LinkedIn invitations, hackers manage to break into computer systems and gain financial gain.

The hackers themselves are often very difficult to trace. Due to the ever-improving encryption (encoding) of computers, hackers often remain untraceable by the judiciary. The search is complicated by the fact that computer owners cannot be forced to reveal their passwords under current legislation. A new bill seeks to change this by threatening someone who refuses to give their security codes with imprisonment. Such a law is not expected to stand up in the European Court of Human Rights because, under fundamental law, a person cannot be forced to provide evidence against himself.

If governments want to fight cybercrime effectively, they would do better to join forces worldwide instead of using their knowledge of cryptography against each other, as the NSA has done. Some mutual distrust will then still have to be overcome.

Mr D.M. Penn