The International Cyber Security Protection Alliance is to undertake one of the largest international consultations into cybercrime ever as they try to help governments and businesses protect themselves from cyber criminals
Called Project 2020 the study will analyse current trends in cybercrime and how they could evolve in the next eight years and beyond.
In the past two years cybercrime has seen an industrialisation, meaning that organisations can draw on a huge supporting infrastructure of criminal service providers from web hosts to generating credit card verification data.
There has been a significant increase in targeted cyber attacks, called ‘spearphising’, as the amount of data we hold on the internet has increased.
Under daily cyber attack
John Lyons, chief executive of the International Cyber Security Protection Alliance (ICSPA), said: “During the past 24 months, critical infrastructures in countries around the world have been under daily cyber attack from both organised criminal networks and state-sponsored entities.
“During the past few years, increasingly sophisticated and highly-targeted cyber attacks have resulted in significant losses – not only financial but also, potentially even more worryingly, of intellectual property – across the defence and aerospace, oil and petrochemicals, financial services, manufacturing and pharmaceuticals domains.
“Cybercrime is notoriously difficult to tackle given the international structure and capabilities of some of the criminal networks we see in operation. It used to be inherently difficult to combine international efforts to fight cybercrime but, for the first time, this project will bring together experts globally with a remit to identify and fix weaknesses in our systems before they come to market.”
Combination of expertise
Project 2020 will combine the expertise of law enforcement agencies with that of ICSPA’s members and the European Commission’s new European Cybercime Centre (EC3).
The City of London Police and the European Network and Information Secuity Agency (ENISA) are also set to contribute resources and intelligence.
From the business community, firms including Visa Europe, Shop Direct Group and fraud prevention services firm Transactis will be joined by leading cyber security firms including McAfee, Digiware and Trendmicro in the fight against cybercrime.
Project 2020 will be headed up by Europol’s Dr Baines and will aim to provide insight into how cybercrime will develop.
The project will deliver information and recommendations that raises awareness among Governments, businesses and citizens to help them prepare their defences against future threats. The project is set to deliver policy briefs and White Papers on evolving threat scenarios, and establish a monitoring mechanism to assist organisations that combat cybercrime.
Taking the fight to the cybercriminals
Dr Baines said: “Cybercrime evolves as quickly as technology, and technology develops so quickly that the unthinkable becomes mainstream before we can imagine. Furthermore, criminals today can still surprise us as they move from region to region around the world. We have the groups around the table who can make sure this will no longer be the case.”
Meanwhile, the City of London Police’s Steve Head explained that his force has joined the project because they believe the pool of resources will “significantly enhance cyber security around the world.”
The Global Prosecutors E-crime Network (GPEN) is also taking part, with chairman Nicholas Cowdery stating: “The continuing evolution of cybercrime requires prosecutors around the world to keep pace with criminal initiatives and law enforcement responses so as to be able effectively to bring offenders to justice.”
Developing constructive working relationships
Prosecutor Elizabeth Howe OBE said that the association between GPEN and ICSPA “will enable us to develop constructive relationships with the IT industry and other law enforcement agencies in the cyber crime field.”
The ICSPA is chaired by former UK Home Secretary David Blunkett, and has recently celebrated its one year anniversary.
Project 2020 is a major step forward for the organisation as it attempts to lead the fight against cybercriminals.
For more information about the work of the ICSPA visit its website at: www.icpsa.org
