Fighting Cyber Crime

Cyber crimes are crimes committed using the internet or other forms of computer technology. As the internet has become such an important part of our lives, fighting these crimes is more and more relevant for everyone who wishes to safely use said technologies. However, no crime is as border less as cyber crimes are, making international cooperation a very necessary part of cyber crime fighting.

According to U.S. General Attorney Loretta Lynch the United States will therefore station a prosecutor in Europe with the European law enforcement agency "Europol" in order to make international cyber crime investigations easier. Europol is responsible for coordinating investigations all across Europe,targeting people trafficking, money laundering, counterfeiting and organized crime. As cyber crimes have become more numerous, they are also considered to pose a threat to the European Union. Europol director Rob Wainwright hopes that having a U.S. Prosecutor on board will convince large U.S.-based technology companies to engage in international cyber crime investigations. He believes these companies, such as Microsoft, to be vitally important for Europol's police work when it comes to hunting down cyber criminals. He stated that having access to their technology would be extremely useful especially when handling online child sexual exploitation and cyber attacks.

Prior collaboration has proofed to be a very efficient way of tackling these issues. Europol, together with its U.S. Partners, such as the FBI, the U.S.- Secret Service and ICE, managed tosucceed in many operations worldwide, resulting in the taking down of botnets (a number of computers that have been set up to forward transmissions without their owner's knowledge such as spam or viruses) and Tor hidden services (free software, enabling anonymous communication), and the arrest of criminals involved in sexual crimes against children online.

The deployment of a U.S. Prosecutor will formalize this collaboration and enable both parties to make quick decisions regarding ongoing investigations, improving international cyber crime fighting.