Cybercrime presents a major challenge for law enforcement

The Hague - The Netherlands.

The world is evermore dependent on high–tech communications and banking systems. At the same time, the underground economy where cybercriminals trade their illegally obtained information, skills and tools, is flourishing.

Whilst the value of the cybercriminal economy as a whole is not yet known, the most recent estimate of global corporate losses alone stands at around €750 billion per year. The scale of the problem is itself a threat to law enforcement response capability – with more than 150 000 viruses and other types of malicious code in circulation, and 148 000 computers compromised per day (source: McAfee).

“Cybercrime is borderless by nature – this also makes criminal investigations more complicated for law enforcement authorities. To effectively tackle cybercrime, adequate cross–border provisions are needed, and international cooperation and mutual assistance within EU law enforcement, and between the EU and third countries, needs to be enhanced.” says Rob Wainwright, Director of Europol. He continues: “As the EU’s criminal intelligence and information hub, Europol has advanced IT tools and a large team of professional analysts and experts ready to support the work of European law enforcement authorities in their fight against cybercrime.”

As part of the Stockholm Programme, whose aim is to create a single area of justice and security for the European Union’s 500 million citizens, Europol has been invited to step up strategic analysis on cybercrime. Several conclusions and initiatives have been agreed upon to define a concerted strategy to fight cybercrime effectively. This will be carried out in a way appropriate to the multiple crimes committed by these means: sexual violence and child sex abuse imagery, terrorist activities, attacks on electronic networks, fraud, identify theft, etc.

To contribute to the strategic planning for a European Cyber Crime Centre, Europol has produced the iOCTA* - a Threat Assessment on Internet Facilitated Organised Crime. The iOCTA's findings address current and future challenges and are based on EU law enforcement intelligence and open source material.