The European Cybercrime Centre (EC3 or EC³) is the body of the Police Office (Europol) of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

(EU), headquartered in

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

, that coordinates cross-border law enforcement activities against

computer crime Cybercrime encompasses a wide range of criminal activities that are carried out using digital devices and/or networks. It has been variously defined as "a crime committed on a computer network, especially the Internet"; Cybercriminals may exp ...

and acts as a centre of technical expertise on the matter.

History

When officially launched on 11 January 2013, the European Cybercrime Centre was not expected to be fully operational until 2015. It began with a staff of 30, with plans to expand to 40 by the end of 2013. It began operations with a budget of about 3.6 million euros.

Organisational structure and key personnel

The head of EC3 reports directly to the head of Europol. The first person to head the department was the former head of Danish domestic intelligence, , who left Europol in January 2015 to become

Barclays Barclays PLC (, occasionally ) is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services ...

' Chief Intelligence Security Officer.

Responsibilities and cooperation with other bodies

EC3 was tasked with assisting member states in their efforts to dismantle and disrupt cybercrime networks and developing tools and providing training. EC3 works with the European Union Intelligence and Situation Centre (INTCEN), the

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC; French language, French: ''Office des Nations unies contre la drogue et le crime'') is a United Nations office that was established in 1997 as the Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention ...

(UNDCP), the

World Customs Organization The World Customs Organization (WCO) is an intergovernmental organization headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. Notable projects include its collaboration with the WTO on trade facilitation and the implementation of the SAFE Framework of Standar ...

(WCO), the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (EBCG, also known as Frontex), and the

European Anti-fraud Office The European Anti-Fraud Office (commonly known as OLAF, from the ) is a body mandated by the European Union (EU) with protecting the Union's financial interests. It was founded on 28 April 1999, under the European Commission Decision 1999/352. ...

(OLAF). Press releases in 2015 also revealed that EC3 works with American security services, such as the

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

(FBI). There is some overlap with the responsibilities of the European Union Agency for Network and Information Security (ENISA). At a press conference on 10 February 2014, asked about massive identity theft uncovered by the German

Federal Office for Information Security The Federal Office for Information Security (, abbreviated as BSI) is the German upper-level federal agency in charge of managing computer and communication security for the German government. Its areas of expertise and responsibility includ ...

, the then head of the EC3, Troels Oerting, said that his unit was not responsible for combatting "politically motivated hacking and/or espionage against EU institutions".

Activities

In February 2014, Troels Oerting reported successes that the unit had had in 2013. These included catching internet extortioners, with 13 arrests. They had also been involved in fighting

malware Malware (a portmanteau of ''malicious software'')Tahir, R. (2018)A study on malware and malware detection techniques . ''International Journal of Education and Management Engineering'', ''8''(2), 20. is any software intentionally designed to caus ...

attacks on banks using

botnet A botnet is a group of Internet-connected devices, each of which runs one or more Internet bot, bots. Botnets can be used to perform distributed denial-of-service attack, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, steal data, send Spamming, sp ...

s and – in cooperation with

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

and experts from the German Federal Criminal Police Office – taking down the

ZeroAccess botnet ZeroAccess is a Trojan horse computer malware that affects Microsoft Windows operating systems. It is used to download other malware on an infected machine from a botnet while remaining hidden using rootkit techniques. History and propagation Th ...

. In 2014, details were revealed of Operation Onymous, which took down a number of

Darknet A darknet or dark net is an overlay network within the Internet that can only be accessed with specific software, configurations, or authorization, and often uses a unique customized communication protocol. Two typical darknet types are social n ...

sites, including

Pandora In Greek mythology, Pandora was the first human woman created by Hephaestus on the instructions of Zeus. As Hesiod related it, each god cooperated by giving her unique gifts. Her other name—inscribed against her figure on a white-ground '' ky ...

, Cloud 9, Hydra, Blue Sky, Topix, Flugsvamp, Cannabis Road, Black Market and Silk Road 2.0. In 2015, American media reported on a coordinated FBI operation with the assistance of EC3 to take down Dark0de, the largest English -language communication and trading platform for cybercriminals.

Participating states

As well as the EU member states, there is cooperation with a number of other states, including

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

North Macedonia North Macedonia, officially the Republic of North Macedonia, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe. It shares land borders with Greece to the south, Albania to the west, Bulgaria to the east, Kosovo to the northwest and Serbia to the n ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

Monaco Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a Sovereign state, sovereign city-state and European microstates, microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria, in Western Europe, ...

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

Moldova Moldova, officially the Republic of Moldova, is a Landlocked country, landlocked country in Eastern Europe, with an area of and population of 2.42 million. Moldova is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

, the

Republic of Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...

Montenegro , image_flag = Flag of Montenegro.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Montenegro.svg , coa_size = 80 , national_motto = , national_anthem = () , image_map = Europe-Mont ...

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

and the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:European Cybercrime Centre 2013 establishments in the Netherlands Computer security organizations European Union agencies' subsidiary organisations Europol Government agencies established in 2013 Information technology organizations based in Europe International law enforcement agencies Cybercrime Centre Organisations based in The Hague Cybercrime Centre