Europol has launched an international cybercrime task force

Europol launched a cybercrime task force Monday to fight online crime in the EU and other countries. The Joint Cybercrime Action Taskforce (J-CAT) will be piloted for six months and hosted at Europol’s European CyberCrime Center (EC3), the organization said in a news release. The J-CAT will coordinate international investigations to take action against key online threats and top targets, such as underground forums and malware, including banking Trojans, Botnets and online fraud, Europol said.

Cybercrime experts from police forces around the world are coming together to form a new body, the Joint Cybercrime Action Taskforce (J-CAT), aiming to tackle the smartest online criminals. Andy Archibald, deputy head of the National Cyber Crime Unit with the UK’s National Crime Agency, has been placed in charge of the team, which will be based in the European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) at Europol. Cybercrime police from Austria, Canada, Colombia, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, the UK and the US have already committed to taking part in the six-month pilot for J-CAT. The team will coordinate investigations into widespread threats, including viruses that steal banking logins, and high-profile criminals, such as those dealing hacker tools and selling personal data on underground forums. As many as 18 individuals from the respective global law enforcement agencies will be relocated to the Hague where the EC3 is based. They will gather and share intelligence on cybercriminal activity before building cases, which will be presented to the J-CAT board headed by Archibald. That board will then decide on which cases to pursue.