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Europol launches international cyber-crime J-CAT taskforce

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By John McCarthy, Opinion Editor

September 1, 2014 | 3 min read

Europol on Monday announced a new hacker-tracking agency called the Joint Cybercrime Action Taskforce (J-CAT) to combat digital crime in the EU and beyond.

J-Cat will function as part of Europol's EC3 department

The J-CAT team will be piloted for a period of half a year where it will operate from Europol’s European CyberCrime Center.

The group, brought together by the EU Cybercrime Taskforce, the FBI and the NCA, is comprised of cyber liason officers from the EU and partnering law-enforcement agencies across the world including Canada, Germany, France, Spain, the UK and the US.

The team will be tasked with neutralising key cyber-crime threats and targets, such as underground forums and malware, including banking trojans.

Andy Archibald, deputy director of the National Cyber Crime Unit from the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) will lead the agency.

Troels Oerting, head of the European Cybercrime Centre, said: “Today is a good day for those fighting cybercrime in Europe and beyond. For the first time in modern police history a multi-lateral permanent cybercrime taskforce has been established in Europe to coordinate investigations against top cybercriminal networks.

“The goal is to prevent cybercrime, to disrupt it, catch crooks and seize their illegal profits. This is a first step in a long walk towards an open, transparent, free but also safe Internet. The goal cannot be reached by law enforcement alone, but will require a consolidated effort from many stakeholders in our global village.

Oerting added: "I am confident we will see practical tangible results very soon."

Andy Archibald, head of the J-CAT, said: “There are many challenges faced by law enforcement agencies with regards to cyber criminals and cyber-attacks. This is why there needs to be a truly holistic and collaborative approach taken when tackling them.

“The J-CAT will, for the first time, bring together a coalition of countries across Europe and beyond to coordinate the operational response to the common current and emerging global cyber threats faced by J-CAT members.”

The agency will provide international police services actionable intelligence from investigations into the malware, Botnets, Crime-as-a-Service, online fraud, intrusion and similar top-end crimes.

Last week, the FBI said it was investigating a Russian hacker collective which may have been responsible for stealing sensitive data from five US banks, including JP Morgan Chase.

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