Public Prosecution Service and the police still lack people and expertise to tackle cybercrime

In 2017, according to the agreement, the police should have submitted 230 suspects of cybercrime to the Public Prosecution Service, but that number became 223. According to the Public Prosecution Service, this is partly due to the fact that there is too little capacity and knowledge to tackle internet crime. .

The number of cybercrime cases handed in by the police to the Public Prosecution Service in 2017 in order to further prosecute the suspects was 223, according to the annual report. However, this number fell short of the target of 230. In 2016 the number of cases submitted was 171 and in 2015 the police delivered 125 regular internet crime cases to the Public Prosecution Service.

The standard for the number of complex criminal investigations in the field of cybercrime that the Public Prosecution Service had to conduct in 2017 has been met. There had to be 40 and a total of 43 complex criminal investigations were actually carried out. In 2014 there were 19, in 2015 a total of 21 and in 2016 that figure was 34.

In 2016, the Public Prosecution Service indicated that it was already catching up to increase its expertise and capacity to combat cybercrime, such as computer breaches. The Public Prosecution Service now indicates that in 2017 it still has too few people and expertise. In 2016, the Public Prosecution Service already indicated in an internal memorandum that it was millions of euros short for combating certain types of crime, such as internet crime.