The European Commission’s proposal for establishing a European center to tackle cybercrime is a great initiative, and I welcome it with enthusiasm
Eugene Kaspersky, Chief Executive Officer, Kaspersky Lab
It’s not the first initiative of its kind - there are already two large organizations that want to take the lead in the fight against cybercrime on the international level: the Action Against Terrorism Unit (a department of the United Nations), and Interpol, which plans to open a Cyber Interpol division office in Singapore in 2014. Still, the more organizations there are acting in this field, clearly - the better.
We have arrived at the third stage in the evolution of the Internet - the regulation stage, which comes after, first, the innovation stage, and second, the incidents stage. Of course we are still largely in the second stage of incidents, but regulation is on its way, even though it’s just the beginning. Many countries already have CERTs (Computer Emergency Response Teams) and cybercrime laws, but in many cases law enforcement is faced with shortages of funds and resources, which makes the fight harder.
At the same time, it’s clear that fighting cybercrime today is no longer a job any single entity can effectively perform by itself. This is because cybercrime transgresses geopolitical borders, meaning attackers can target victims on the other side of the world. But law enforcement agencies have jurisdictional limits and are unable to conduct investigations alone across borders. So logically they should cooperate with their colleagues in other countries.
Kaspersky Lab already cooperates with IMPACT (the International Multilateral Partnership Against Cyber Threats - the cyber-security executing arm of the United Nations' International Telecommunication Union) in the fight against cybercrime, and I know from personal experience that cooperation helps immensely in this struggle. Through our technical expertise we provide advanced technical information regarding widespread or dangerous malware, which with the help of IMPACT can be placed in the context of current legal investigations or be used to initiate new cases. For example, just two months were enough to investigate one recent scam and to uncover the criminals behind it.
It’s too optimistic to expect that this new body will eliminate cybercrime 100%, but nevertheless this kind of organization can make the lives of cyber criminals a lot more difficult, and their activities a lot riskier, which can only be a good thing.”
