Europol Receives BT Help to Battle Cybercrime
- By CDOTrends editors
- May 22, 2018
BT is taking the fight against cybercrime to a regional level.
The major communications vendor signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Europol, The European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Co-operation, to exchange cyber threat knowledge.
Both firms hope the increased co-operation will create safer cyberspace for all users.
“The signing of this MoU between Europol and BT will improve our capabilities and increase our effectiveness in preventing, prosecuting and disrupting cybercrime. Working co-operation of this type between Europol and industry is the most effective way in which we can hope to secure cyberspace for European citizens and businesses,” Steven Wilson, Head of Business, European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) said.
Europol created the European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) in 2013 to strengthen the law enforcement response to cybercrime in the EU in a bid to better protect EU citizens, businesses, and governments from online crime. It also operates the Joint Cybercrime Action Taskforce (J-CAT), which aims to drive intelligence-led, co-ordinated action against significant cybercrime threats and targets by facilitating the joint identification, prioritization, preparation and initiation of cross-border investigations and operations by its partners.
Both parties signed the MoU at Europol's Headquarters in The Hague in the Netherlands. It will provide a framework for BT and Europol to exchange threat intelligence data as well as information relating to cybersecurity trends, technical expertise and industry best practice.
The MoU continues BT’s efforts to share vital threat intelligence information to law enforcement agencies. Earlier this year, BT became the first telecommunications provider in the world to start sharing information about malicious software and websites on a large scale with other ISPs via a free online portal – the Malware Information Sharing Platform (MISP). To date, BT's worldwide team of more than 2,500 cybersecurity experts identified and shared the details of more than 200,000 malicious domains.
"We're working with other law enforcement agencies in a similar vein to better share cybersecurity intelligence, expertise, and best practice to help them expose and take action against the organized gangs of cybercriminals lurking in the dark corners of the web," Kevin Brown, VP, BT Security Threat Intelligence said.