New European Cybercrime Centre opens
The new state-of-the-art European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) opened this month. Based at Europols headquarters in The Hague, it will be the focal point in the EUs fight against cybercrime.
The new state-of-the-art European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) opened this month. Based at Europols headquarters in The Hague, it will be the focal point in the EUs fight against cybercrime.
The new centre will serve as a European information hub on cybercrime, developing and deploying digital forensic capabilities to support investigations in the EU, building capacity to combat cybercrime through training and awareness-raising, as well as delivering best practice on cybercrime investigations.
EU Commissioner for Home Affairs, Cecilia Malmström, said EC3 would be the key to reducing cybercrime activities and making the EUs internet-based economy a secure place for citizens and businesses.
Director of Europol, Rob Wainwright, added: The threats from cybercrime are dynamic and rapidly evolving, but a revolution is now underway in EU law enforcement and the EC3 will be at its forefront. By building trust and establishing information flows between law enforcement and cybersecurity stakeholders, we will be smarter, faster and stronger.
Speaking at a CERT (Computer Emergency Response Teams) workshop last year, organised by the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA), Olivier Burgersdijk, head of strategy and outreach for the EC3, said the new centre will:
provide support on cyber operations and forensics;
assist with capacity building (law enforcement, prosecutors, judges, etc);
reach out to the public and private partners;
have a global view in order to define a strategic response; and
provide a collective voice for European cybercrime investigators.
He said the EC3s priority crime areas will include intrusion incidents, cyber attacks, malware, internet-based trade in counterfeit products, payment card fraud and child sexual exploitation.
