The European Commission on Wednesday proposed establishing a European Cybercrime Centre to help protect European citizens and businesses from cyber threats.
The center will focus on protecting social network profiles from e-crime infiltration, combating cybercrimes that cause serious harm to their victims, such as online child sexual exploitation and will help the fight online identity theft. The centre will also warn member states of cybercrime threats and alert them of weaknesses in their online defenses.
The Commission proposed setting up the center as part of the Europol European police force, in The Hague. The center would have a separate governing board, but would be charged with identifying organized cybercriminal networks and providing operational support.
The center is expected to cost around $4.8 million in the first year, and could start operations next January. However the proposal still needs to be adopted by the budgetary authority of Europol.
Last week, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said the government is considering setting up a dedicated cyber-security command, responsible for protecting the armed forces' information systems.
