The Hague – The Netherlands.
[europol.europa.eu] Improved and closer cooperation in combating cyber-crime is the result of a 3-day conference on cyber-crime related topics, which was held at Europol headquarters in The Hague during the first week of December 2009. This annual conference yielded a lot of interest from High Tech Crime investigators from European Union Member States. Subjects like cross-border operational info-exchange, cyber-crime case studies, new techniques in perpetrating digital attacks, new concepts in digital forensic analysis methods, future criminal trends, and training for law enforcement were all discussed during the event.
On the first day, a session was specifically dedicated to strategic issues. In particular, the establishment of the so-called ‘European Cyber-Crime Platform’, that includes the Internet Crime Reporting Online System (ICROS) launched under the French presidency in 2008, the Analytical Work File Cyborg to fight criminal groups operating on the internet and the Internet & Forensic Expert forum (IFOREX) to host technical data and training for cyber crime law enforcement, were all discussed. The European Cyber Crime Platform is a first step towards a more consistent and effective approach to fighting internet criminality at EU level.
On the second day, the meeting concentrated on the discussion of various operational issues such as the malicious use of internet technologies by criminal organisations and the action to be taken by EU law enforcement to tackle this phenomenon.
On the third and final day, the experts focused on new developments in high-tech crime investigations with the exchange of best practices and the arrangement of hands-on sessions, both from internet and forensic-related points of view. High level technical presentations were delivered by speakers from the Netherlands, UK, Ireland, France, Sweden, Spain and Norway. In particular, Norwegian Police presented and offered new, free software for law enforcement agencies; the software is intended to work on the prevention of illegal file sharing on the Internet.
Besides the large participation of EU Member States, delegations from Norway, Switzerland, USA, European Network of Forensic Science Institutes, as well as from the European Commission, Eurojust, and Interpol also joined the meeting.
EUROPOL, the European Union law enforcement agency which handles criminal intelligence, is devoting many efforts to support EU Member States endeavours to achieve a coordinated and harmonised approach in combating cyber-crime.
Source: http://www.europol.europa.eu/index.asp?page=news&news=pr091204.htm
