Professionals from the world of law, the police, the Catalan local police force and the national police force all attended this event.  The Minister of Home Affairs, Jordi Jané, closed the event. Jané first congratulated UIC Barcelona for setting up the new Master’s degree in Cybercrime. “It is an enormous challenge, but I would like to congratulate the university on making the right choice in setting up this new master’s course” he pointed out. Additionally, he highlighted the need for more specific education in order to deal with the growing threat of cybercrime. Faced with a cyberattack “we must be more agile and work in closer cooperation with each other”, he stated. He also added that “Laws must make it possible for police forces to have the tools they need to fight cybercrime”. 

The risk of cyber-victimisation has multiplied at an individual, community and business level.  Out of all of these risks, the protection of minors deserves a special mention.  The new criminal figures introduced as part of the recent reform of the Civil Code covering this area were analysed during the conference. 

Franscisco Pérez Bes, General Secretary of the Spanish National Cybersecurity Institute (INCIBE), opened the event.  Pérez Bes talked about the future threats and trends in the area of cybercrime and encouraged attendees to take advantage of the knowledge gained during the conference to make the internet “a safer, more trustworthy and better place”, in his own words.  Subsequently, José R. Agustina and Eloi Font, who are respectively the Director and Coordinator of our Master’s degree in Cybercrime, provided an introduction to the conference including a video about the “Sweetie 2.0” project against cyberbullying, an initiative set up by the  Tierra de Hombres Foundation.  

In relation to the legal and procedural challenges in the prevention, detection and prosecution of cyberattacks, Rodolfo Tesone, President of the Association of National Experts at Abogacía TIC, stated:  “Legal digital relationships and legal conflicts will increase.  However, neither the legal regulations nor we authorising officers are prepared for this.  At Abogacía TIC neither the strongest nor the fastest will survive, but instead it will be those who can adapt”.  Subsequently, Eloy Velasco, Magistrate for the National Court of Spain, gave an overview of the reform of the Civil Code and the changes that have been made to it in terms of cybercrime.   Pablo Borjabad, a prosecutor for minors who specialises in IT crime, talked about cybercrimes committed by minors and the difficulties they involve at a legal level.  

In recent years new forms of cyber-victimisation have also arisen such as bullying, stalking, sexting or grooming. Josep Maria Tamarit, President of the Catalan Society of Victimology, moderated a table on the challenges the police and educational authorities need to face in order to tackle them. 

Fernando Miró, Co-Director of the Master’s degree in Cybercrime, set out the criminological grounding for the prevention of cyber-victimisation and presented the CiberApp project.  Irene Montiel, a Professor for the Master’s degree, gave a talk from a psychological and victim-oriented perspective about minors and highlighted the need to ensure they can participate in the fight against cyberbullying.  

The event ended with a talk from Carlos Morán, Chief Inspector of Group I for Technological Crime in the national police force; Rubèn Mora, Chief Inspector of the Central Unit for IT Crimes in the Catalan local police force, and Daniel Baena, Chief Lieutenant Colonel of the Unit for Legal Policing in Catalonia in the national police force.  They provided the police perspective and gave evidence of cooperation and coordination between the three police forces in the field of cybercrime.  The speakers gave examples of new initiatives in the area of educating minors in the fight against these three phenomena and shared their experiences and difficulties. 

The event brought together more than 300 people from the fields of law, psychology, education and members of the police force.