International cybercrime taskforce launched

The Joint Cybercrime Action Taskforce (J-CAT) became operational last week to help strengthen the fight against cybercrime in the EU and beyond.

Headed by Andy Archibald, deputy director of the National Cyber Crime Unit at the National Crime Agency (NCA), the J-CAT is being piloted for six months and will coordinate international investigations with partners working side-by-side to take action against key cybercrime threats and top targets, such as underground forums and malware, including banking Trojans.

Hosted at the European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) at Europol, the J-CAT is a joint initiative between EC3, the EU Cybercrime Taskforce, the FBI and the NCA. It comprises a team of cyber liaison officers from Member States, non-EU law enforcement partners and EC3. So far, Austria, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, the UK and the US are part of the J-CAT. Australia and Colombia have also committed to it.

Mr Archibald said: “There are many challenges faced by law enforcement agencies with regards to cyber criminals and cyber attacks. This is why there needs to be a truly holistic and collaborative approach taken when tackling them.

“The J-CAT will, for the first time, bring together a coalition of countries across Europe and beyond to coordinate the operational response to the common current and emerging global cyber threats faced by J-CAT members.

“This is a unique opportunity for international law enforcement agencies to collectively share our knowledge to defend against cyber-related attacks and the NCA is proud to be a founding member”.

Troels Oerting, head of EC3, said that for the first time in modern police history, a multi-lateral permanent cybercrime taskforce has been established in Europe to coordinate investigations against top cybercriminal networks.

“The aim is not purely strategic, but also very operational. The goal is to prevent cybercrime, to disrupt it, catch crooks and seize their illegal profits,” he added.

“This is a first step in a long walk towards an open, transparent, free but also safe internet. The goal cannot be reached by law enforcement alone, but will require a consolidated effort from many stakeholders in our global village. But the J-CAT will do its part of the necessary ‘heavy-lifting’ and I am confident we will see practical, tangible results very soon.”

EC3 is involved in cross-border cybercrime investigations and has seen a rapid increase in major international cases. The J-CAT aims to add significant value to international law enforcement cooperation and to maximise the effectiveness of joint and coordinated actions.

Europol says because cybercrime affects citizens, business and governments regardless of their national borders or jurisdictions, police forces across the world face similar crimes and criminal targets.

For that reason, more than with any other type of crime says Europol, it is crucial to share intelligence and align priorities. The J-CAT offers the possibility to address the most impactful crimes affecting many states in a joint, well-concerted manner and with the assistance of EC3.

The J-CAT will gather data on specific criminal themes from national repositories and from relevant government and private partners, as well as transforming this raw data into actionable intelligence, and proposing targets and networks for investigations. It will cover all relevant areas such as malware coding, testing, distribution, botnets, crime-as-a-service, online fraud, intrusion and similar top-end crimes.

In addition, it will organise dedicated consultation meetings with key players in the private sector and the Computer Emergency Response Teams for the EU institutions, bodies and agencies (CERT-EU) to get their input on cybercrime threats that affect them and society in general.