The Council of the European Union has proposed the establishment of a European centre be established to combat cybercrime that would include the right to revoke domain names and IP addresses, according to a statement from a Council meeting on April 26.The Action Plan says it “considers that is of a paramount importance to propose actions which would specify how the main points of the concerted strategy to combat cybercrime should be implemented, both in the short and medium term.”The meeting statement proposed the European Commission draw up a feasibility study on the possibility of creating a centre that would deal with cybercrime including crime related to the invasion of privacy, financial cybercrime, unauthorized access for the purpose of sabotage, crime against intellectual property, attacks on networks and against information systems, on-line fraud, child pornography and spam, and trafficking in illicit substances.The meeting statement noted as one of those medium term actions “to adopt a common approach in the fight against cybercrime internationally, particularly in relation to the revocation of Domain Names and IP addresses. The Commission, in cooperation with the Member States and Europol, is invited to facilitate this objective.”Among short term plans the meeting statement noted it has to find out more about the perpetrators of cybercrime and their modus operandi, to share knowledge within the EU to better understand the problem.Among the medium term plans were to ratify the Council of Europe Cybercrime Convention, consider raising the standards of specialization of the police, judges, prosecutors and forensic staff to an appropriate level to carry out cybercrime investigations, to encourage information sharing among member states and to adopt a common approach in the fight against cybercrime internationally.The Council statement from the meeting is available from:
www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/jha/114028.pdf