The EU says online fraud and organised crime on the internet is on the rise. Last year, credit card fraud alone cost Europeans 1-point-5-billion euros. To combat the increase in online criminal activity the EU has, today, opened a new cybercrime centre – known as EC3. The centre will focus on tackling identity theft, fraud and child exploitation online.
Cyber criminals are equipped to use technology to commit their crimes. They’re infiltrating our computers, our bank accounts, our smart phones and even our social networks – a worrying trend! The latest E.U. figures show, young Europeans spend 80% of their day on the internet. Designed to combat the rise in online criminal activity, the new European Cybercrime Center will pull expertise and promote the sharing of evidence from across the Eurozone. Troels Oerting will head the new cybercrime center EC3. He says we need to change our cybercrime strategy. We have tried many-many years to protect ourselves out of this with safer infrastructure, but this is simply not enough. Just like in the offline world, we need not only to put a lock on the door, we also need to have a criminal-free environment where we can go safely. A recent survey of the E.U. internet uses found high levels of concern about cyber security. 89% of those polled said they’d avoid disclosing personal information online due to security concerns, with 3 out of 4 citizens agreeing risk of becoming a victim of cybercrime has increased over the past year. But why is there a need for a pan-European organization? Troels Oerting, the head of EC3 again: We know about this threat. But do we have the European oversight? No! Is this important? Yes. And why? Because we have no geographical lens in this crime. The crime is not conducted in Stockholm or Vienna. It’s conducted all over by the same groups which we cannot identify. However, Chris Bellamy, Professor of Maritime Security says getting all the member-states to work together won’t be easy. I think it’s going to be a real challenge for them actually to exchange information and evidence. The rules are evidence are extremely strict. And I suspect that the problem will be getting police forces to send information to them. I think in some cases, of course, although there aren’t supposed to be any political differences between the countries of the E.U., the fact is that some political difference and indeed countervailing interests may reel their heads. The new EC3 center will focus on three main areas of cybercrime: online fraud, including incepting payments made on smartphones, identify theft and tackling child exploitation online. Authorities at EC3 will focus on the most dangerous cybercrime threats and key criminal groups who are operating at E.U. level. Last year credit card fraud alone cost Europeans 1.5 billion euros. Cecilia Malmström is the E.U.’s Home Affairs Commissioner. She says evidence collected online could often be more revealing to authorities than evidence found offline. A good piece of information is often all that is needed to combat criminals online. It can open up the whole network. The cybercrime center will also trade national law enforcement authorities and support them in their own cybercrime investigations. But Troels Oerting, the head of EC3, says there’s also a need for global cooperation on tackling cybercrime. EC3 is already working with Singaporean authorities and Troels Oerting is also hopeful of successful cooperation with Russia. We’re also negotiating an agreement with Russia that is just in its stage. I guess in this year we hopefully can sign it which will then enable them to actually exchange information with us. EC3 will now become the focal point in the Eurozone’s fight with cybercrime. The center is based in Hague and already began tackling criminal activity online, but is not expected to be fully functional until 2015. Source: Voice of Russia
