Fight on cybercrime

Crimes against individuals, like online child sexual exploitation, human trafficking, harassment and stalking, as well as online fraud, illicit use of credit cards, crimes affecting e-banking and online booking activities… According to the European Commission "more than one million people become victims of cybercrime every day. The cost of cybercrime could reach an overall total of USD 388 billion worldwide". For these reasons the EU Executive proposed the creation of a "EU Cybercrime Centre to fight online criminals" in order to "protect citizens and enterprises from growing threats".A point of reference. That Centre tasked with fighting cybercrime will be established within the European Police Office, Europol in The Hague (The Netherlands) and will be operative by 2013 with an annual budget of 3.6 million euro with an initial team of thirty and eventually 50 experts. "The centre will be the European focal point in fighting cybercrime" said Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmström. A focus of the European Cybercrime Centre will be "to protect social network profiles from e-crime infiltration and will help the fight against online identity theft". "Millions of Europeans use the Internet for home banking, online shopping and planning holidays, or to stay in touch with family and friends via online social networks. But as the online part of our everyday lives grows, organised crime is following suit – and these crimes affect each and every one of us", said the Swedish Commissioner in Brussels on March 28. A profitable market. The Commissioner for Home Affairs pointed out: "We can’t let cybercriminals disrupt our digital lives. A European Cybercrime Centre within Europol will become a hub for cooperation in defending an internet that is free, open and safe". The figures presented by the Commissioner better explain the Executive’s initiative, announced over a year ago. "By 2011, nearly three quarters (73 percent) of European households had Internet access at home and in 2010 over one third of EU citizens (36 percent) were banking online. Eighty percent of young Europeans connect through online social networks and approximately USD 8 trillion exchanges hands globally each year in e-commerce". This is explains why cybercrime is on the raise. "Cyber-criminals have created a profitable market around their illegal activities where credit card details can be sold between organised crime groups for as little as €1 per card, a counterfeited physical credit card for around €140 and bank credentials for as little as €60". Media e social network. The Commission points out that cybercrimes are also directed against mass media and social networks. According to the Commission up to 600 000 Facebook accounts "are blocked every day, after various types of hacking attempts and over 6 700 000 distinct bot-infected computers were detected in 2009". On these ground it was decided to set up the Centre in The Hague, which for the moment has the following tasks: warn EU Member States of major cybercrime threats and "alert them of weaknesses in their online defences"; identify "organised cyber-criminal networks and prominent offenders in cyberspace"; provide operational support in concrete investigations, be it with forensic assistance or by helping to set up "cybercrime Joint Investigation Teams" tasked with controlling the web, notwithstanding the respect of fundamental rights, the freedom of expression and privacy. An increasing phenomenon. For the Centre to be established, the Commission’s proposal now needs to be adopted by the budgetary authority of Europol. The Commission announced its intention to establish a European Cybercrime Centre already some time ago, while also other EU bodies have drawn up draft measures for combating cybercrime. The Commission underlined that cybercrimes are reported across member states and that they are steadily increasing. "To achieve its tasks and to better support cybercrime investigators, prosecutors and judges in the Member States, the Centre will fuse information from open sources, private industry, police and academia", the Executive wrote in a statement. The new Centre "will also serve as a knowledge base for national police in the Member States and it will pool European cybercrime expertise and training efforts. It will be able to respond to queries from cybercrime investigators, prosecutors and judges as well as the private sector on specific technical and forensic issues".