Cybercrime becoming easier says Europol

The increased commercialisation of cybercrime has seen a service-based criminal industry evolve that allows cybercriminals to develop products and services for use by others, according to the latest Europol threat assessment.

The 2014 Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment (iOCTA), published on Monday (September 29) by Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre, warns that this ‘crime-as-a-service’ business model provides access to a wide range of services that facilitate almost any type of cybercrime.

As a result, barriers into cybercrime are being lowered, allowing those without technical expertise – including traditional organised crime groups to purchase the skills and tools they lack.

The report highlights the abuse of the ‘darknet’ used by criminals for the illicit online trade in drugs, weapons, stolen goods, stolen personal and payment card data, forged identity documents and child abuse material.

It says this “hidden internet” has become a principal driving force in the evolution of cybercrime and represents a highly complex challenge for law enforcement.

The iOCTA says criminals predominantly operate from jurisdictions outside of the EU which, combined with outdated legal tools and insufficient response capacities, allows them to operate with minimum risk.

Rob Wainwright, director of Europol, said the transnational nature of cybercrime was the biggest risk identified in the iOCTA, adding: “It means that issues concerning attribution, the abuse of legitimate services and inadequate or inconsistent legislation are among the most important challenges facing law enforcement today.”

Cecilia Malmström, EU Commissioner of Home Affairs, said law enforcement authorities were under increasing pressure to keep up, adding: “We need to use our new knowledge of how organised crime operates online to launch more transnational operations.”