Octopus Project
The Octopus Project is a Council of Europe project based on voluntary contributions from States Parties and Observers to the Convention on Cybercrime and other public and private sector organisations, aiming to support the implementation of the Convention on Cybercrime (Budapest Convention), its Protocols and related standards, as well as to address additional challenges that came to the forefront in the course of 2020.
Results are expected in the following areas:
- Assistance of the criminal justice authorities from the countries willing to implement the Budapest Convention, its First Protocol on Xenophobia and Racism, its Second Additional Protocol to the Convention on Cybercrime on enhanced co-operation and disclosure of electronic evidence, as well as related standards;
- Support to the Cybercrime Convention Committee (T-CY);
- Organisation of the Octopus conferences on cooperation against cybercrime;
- Development of online tools for the delivery of capacity building activities on cybercrime and electronic evidence.
Duration of the project: 1 January 2021 – 31 December 2027
Documents
Project summary, June 2023
Full report: The Budapest Convention on Cybercrime: benefits and impact in practice, July 2020
Anniversary webpage: 20 years of the Convention on Cybercrime, October 2021
Factsheets: Convention on Cybercrime | First Additional Protocol | Second Additional Protocol, November 2021
Article: A new Protocol to the Convention on Cybercrime: For a more effective criminal justice response to crime online – with strong safeguards, November 2021
Study: COVID-19 related cybercrime in Asia: Regional Study, June 2022
Leaflet: Joining the Convention on Cybercrime: Benefits: EN | FR | ES, December/September 2023
Leaflet: Cyberviolence Resource, December 2023 new
Study: Implementing the First Protocol to the Convention on Cybercrime on Xenophobia and Racism: Good practice study, December 2023 new
Article: C-PROC at 10: Ten years of capacity building by the Cybercrime Programme Office of the Council of Europe, December 2023 (also .pdf) new
Video resources
Audio resources
Podcast (episode 1): Cathie talks about cybercrime with Alexander Seger | EN, October 2021
Podcast (episode 2): More cybercrime, with Alexander Seger| EN, May 2022
Podcast (episode 3): Cybercrime roundtable | EN, May 2022
Japan makes a further voluntary contribution to the Octopus Project
The Government of Japan has made another voluntary contribution to support the Council of Europe action against cybercrime through the Octopus Project. The agreement was signed on 14 February 2025 by Ambassador Hiroyuki Uchida of Japan and Bjørn Berge, Deputy Secretary General of the Council of...
Empowering Experts: C-PROC Launches the First Cyber-Skills Sharing Programme!
Exciting news for the cybercrime experts: the Cybercrime Programme Office (C-PROC), through the CyberSEE joint project of the European Union and the Council of Europe, is launching the first edition of the Cyber-Skills Sharing Programme! This initiative aims to enhance global collaboration and...
Save the Date: Octopus Conference 2025!
Held every 12 to 18 months by the Council of Europe, the Octopus Conference constitutes one of the biggest and finest platforms of exchange in cybercrime gathering experts from more than 100 countries, international organisations, private sector and academia. This year, the Octopus Conference...
Octopus Project video (2021)