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U.S. and E.U. Join Forces to Fight Cybercrime

by Caleb Johnson on June 30, 2009 at 12:46 PM

Cybercrime spans the entire globe, and, until now, there's been little collaboration between nations when it comes to combating international networks of hackers.

The Wall Street Journal reports on the newly formed European Electronic Crime Task Force -- a Rome-headquartered effort between the United States and the European Union. The group is backed by the muscle of the U.S. Secret Service, an Italian cybercrime police unit, and the Italian post office Poste Italiane SpA (PISA). What does a mail system have to do with fighting crime, you ask? Well, many people use PISA to deposit paychecks and pay bills, both online and in person. The Wall Street Journal reports that the post office does more business in its banking and insurance divisions than it does mailing letters and packages.

The task force will use software to scan banking systems for unusual activity across Europe. In addition, it will protect information stored on government computers, those in embassies for instance, that terrorists could use for attacks. The Internet Age has made the world a much smaller place, so it's comforting to see governments take advantage of this by combining their computer-based crime fighting efforts. If hackers can strike across borders, law enforcement agencies need to be able to respond across borders, too. [From: The Wall Street Journal]

Tags: banks, crime, cyber crime, cyber warfare, CyberCrime, CyberWarfare, defense, europe, hack, security, terrorism

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