EU To Crack Down On Cybercrime

The European Commission has exhorted EU police to take firm action against unlawful cyber communication and Internet-crime, which is exposing Britain's small firms.

IT security has become a burning issue for UK's companies and the EU official disclosed that the hacking rates are rising, with illegal activities getting more hi-tech.

There are mounting concerns in the European capitals, regarding the extensive utilization of the net to start computer strikes amongst hostile countries or by crime syndicates or extremists.

The latest EU decision arrives immediately after the Estonian allegations that Russia was conducting cyber-terrorism by hacking Estonian sites after a dispute over the dislodgment of a Soviet monument in Estonia's capital Tallinn. The official disclosed that 128 discrete attacks had been targeted against Estonian computing system by the mid-week of May 2007.

Though, Russia refutes the charges. "Computer-generated offense in Europe is a development which may develop or have its impacts outside the limits of the EU," the Commission declared in a report issued on May23, 2007 by News24.

The Commission in another report stated "EU required a plan to preclude such hits but declined to reveal whether he thought the strikes on Estonia had started from Russia," informs PCPRO on May 23, 2007.

As per the Commission the total sites releasing child porn have risen by 1500% between 1997-2005. UK's Financial Service Authority had figured instances of Bank fraud using 'phishing' - where cyber-terrorists, posing to be a bank, demanding account information - had grown by 8,000 per cent over the past few years (2005-06).

But, the commission emphasized that these figures could just be a sign of the magnitude of computer-generated offenses, thanks to the increment in net activities.

Individual EU steps launched in 2006 also aspire to increase defense of European infrastructure, such as government or bank operated computing systems, which the EU cautions are becoming more vulnerable to strikes from cyber-terrorists.

This year (2007), the EU official plans to arrange a meeting with police and companies to discuss methods of increasing teamwork against hacking, which includes crimes like scams, attaching racist images, and unauthorized violation of computer networks.

Related article: E-Crime Reporting Format To Be Launched in July

» SPAMfighter News - 6/1/2007