The European Union's criminal intelligence police force, Europol, is addressing the rise in cyber crime with a new, state-of-the-art Cybercrime Centre, it announced Friday.
With an annual operating budget of 7 million euro, The Center will address three main areas of cyber crime: organized fraud, crimes targeting critical infrastructure and information systems (often grouped under the umbrella of "cyber terrorism"), and crimes causing serious harm, such as child pornography. The facility includes a sealed room that blocks wireless signals, thus preventing criminals from remotely wiping incriminating data, according to the BBC.
Europol is just the most recent in a series of law enforcement agencies stepping up their approach to cybercrime. In New York City, an interagency effort begun last year aims to produce a "cybercrime lab" to address identity theft and other computer crimes. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has its own Cyber Crimes Center to support domestic and international investigations into cross-border crime.
These agencies are responding to an undeniably growing threat. According to the United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation, cyber crime cost the US government tens of millions of dollars last year, in addition to threatening US security. The private sector isn't free from this threat either. According to a survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), cyber crime is the second most among economic crimes affecting financial services companies.
And with governments relying increasingly on digital records and infrastructure, a lack of online security can mean complete vulnerability.