Over the next five years, European Police Forces will be working together to combat cyber crime, and may be looking directly at your hard drive.
In an attempt to quell the growing menace of cybercrime, Europol have invested 300,000 Euros in creating a system to correlate cybercrime reports. The five-year plan already has plans for tackling issues such as spam, malicious attacks and trade in child pornography.
As well as the correlation of data, a new cyber-police force will be created whose remit is in creating virtual patrols across international borders. The Cyber Police will also be trained in making ‘remote searches’ in order to track down criminals, within the limits of the various Data Protection Laws.
One of the main attacks will be against images of children being sexually abused. In their strategic statement the EU has said “half of all internet crime involves the production, distribution and sale of child pornography”.
Scary, I’ll think you’ll agree. But is it worth the potential for privacy invasion to combat a far worse crime? Big Brother may be downloading from you.
Source : BBC News
Published: Dec 1, 2008 07:50 pm