The Joint Cybercrime Action Taskforce launched to fight against cybercrime

The initiative is aimed at supporting the fight against cybercrime in the European Union and beyond. The J-CAT, which is being piloted for six months, will coordinate international investigations with partners working together to take action against key cybercrime threats and top targets, such as underground forums and malware, including banking Trojans. The J-CAT will be led by Andy Archibald, Deputy Director of the National Cyber Crime Unit from the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA).

Initiated by Europols EC3, the EU Cybercrime Taskforce, the FBI and the NCA, the J-CAT comprises a team composed of Cyber Liaison Officers from committed and closely involved Member States, non-EU law enforcement partners and EC3. Key contributors to the intelligence pool will be the EU Member States via EC3, and other law enforcement cooperation partners. Thus far, Austria, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, the UK and the US are part of the J-CAT. Australia and Colombia have also committed to the initiative.

EC3 is involved in cross-border cybercrime investigations and has seen a rapid increase in major international cases. The J-CAT aims to add significant value to international law enforcement cooperation, and to maximise the effectiveness of joint and coordinated actions. Cybercrime affects citizens, business and governments regardless of their national borders or jurisdictions. Police forces across the world face similar crimes and criminal targets. For that reason, more than with any other type of crime, it is crucial to share intelligence and align priorities. The J-CAT offers the possibility to address the most impactful crimes affecting many states in a joint, well-concerted manner and with the assistance of EC3.

The J-CAT will gather data on specific criminal themes from national repositories and from relevant government and private partners, as well as transforming this raw data into actionable intelligence, and proposing targets and networks for investigations. It will cover all relevant areas like malware coding, testing, distribution, Botnets, Crime-as-a-Service, online fraud, intrusion and similar top-end crimes.