Over half of all criminal investigations today include a request for cross-border access to electronic evidence such as texts, e-mails or messages in apps. However, gaining access to electronic evidence presents significant legal and technical challenges. For instance, evidence may be stored in an unknown location, servers can be spread across different countries, and there are no harmonised deadlines for how long service providers have to preserve data or reply to legal requests.

As the knowledge hub for cross-border access to electronic evidence, the SIRIUS Project (co-implemented by Europol and Eurojust) supports the daily efforts of law enforcement, judicial authorities, and service providers with accessing electronic evidence, while also keeping policymakers informed about the persistent challenges they face.

The yearly SIRIUS Electronic Evidence Situation report provides an overview of the current legal landscape surrounding electronic evidence and the unique challenges that law enforcement, judicial authorities and service providers face.

Key findings for law enforcement

What are the current practices? The amount of data requests is 3.5 times more than 2018 with the amount of emergency requests rising as well.

What is new? Cryptocurrency exchanges are now among the top-3 types of providers from which data is requested most frequently.

What challenges remain? Law enforcement is not very aware of the upcoming EU e-Evidence legislation. There is an urgent need for enhanced training to keep pace with the rapidly evolving landscape.

Key findings for judicial authorities

What are the current practices? Judicial cooperation mechanisms are frequently perceived by judicial as slow and procedurally complex, in some cases, resulting in the loss of critical electronic evidence.

What changes are expected? The EU e-Evidence legislative package is expected to improve cross-border access to electronic evidence by providing more robust, harmonised, and streamlined mechanisms.

What challenges remain? The lack of an EU-wide data retention framework, could lead to the loss of critical information needed for investigations.

Key findings for service providers

What is the current situation? The volume of data requests continues to grow each year. The new EU e-Evidence legislative package is expected to provide greater legal clarity for public-private cooperation.

What are the main challenges? The increase in data requests, especially for emergency requests, cause strains on the resources of service providers’ law enforcement response teams. Compliance to the new e-Evidence package requires substantial adaptions to internal processes and IT-systems.

What is recommended? Service providers are encouraged to engage proactively with the SIRIUS Project and prepare for compliance with the new legal frameworks.

The SIRIUS Project has received funding from the European Commission’s Service for Foreign Policy Instruments under Contribution Agreement NDICI THREATS FPI/2024/OPSYS CT NR 700002618.