The European Electronic Crime Task Force (EECTF) is an

information sharing Information exchange or information sharing means that people or other entities pass information from one to another. This could be done electronically or through certain systems. These are terms that can either refer to bidirectional '' inform ...

initiative, created in 2009 by an agreement between the

United States Secret Service The United States Secret Service (USSS or Secret Service) is a federal law enforcement agency under the Department of Homeland Security tasked with conducting criminal investigations and providing protection to American political leaders, thei ...

, the Italian Ministry of Internal Affairs and

Poste Italiane Poste Italiane (, , abbr. PT) is the Italy, Italian postal service provider. Besides providing postal services, Poste Italiane offers communications, Postal savings system, postal savings products, logistics, and Financial services, financial a ...

. The EECTF's mission is "to support the analysis and the development of best practices against

cybercrime Cybercrime encompasses a wide range of criminal activities that are carried out using digital devices and/or Computer network, networks. It has been variously defined as "a crime committed on a computer network, especially the Internet"; Cyberc ...

in European countries, through the creation of a strategic alliance between public and private sectors, including

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, the

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, international institutions, and ICT security vendors". Accordingly, the EECTF aims to help the cyber security community by: * Strengthening relationships between the different players; * Training and supporting members through sharing expertise and knowledge; * Enabling an effective communication channel for information exchange; * Maintaining co-operation on a technical and operational level.

History

The EECTF was established on June 30, 2009, by an agreement between the

, the Italian Ministry of Internal Affairs and

, on the basis of the successful experiences of analogous ECTFs founded in the US by the Secret Service. The United States Secret Service participates through its Rome office, the Italian Ministry of Interior participates through the Service of Postal and Telecommunications Police and Poste Italiane participates through the Information Security Department. Initially restricted only to the only Founder Members, the EECTF was opened up thereafter to the main stakeholders in

, who expressed the will to contribute to a proactive sharing of relevant information. A Permanent Members Group has been started, which gathers to analyze emerging trends in cyber-crime and to discuss methodologies and techniques to combat them.

Governance

The EECTF is not a legal entity, it is a working group created on a voluntary basis, which has been governed since its creation by the EECTF Board made up of the three Founder Members: the United States Secret Service, represented by the

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in charge of the Rome office, the Polizia Postale e delle Comunicazioni, represented by the head of service and Poste Italiane, represented by the CEO. Poste Italiane has chaired the EECTF Board since its inception. The chairman of the EECTF is Mr. Vanes Montanari, VP Security and Safety at Poste Italiane. Administrative and operational activities are accomplished by the EECTF Technical Secretariat, held by Poste Italiane.

Modus operandi

The EECTF is run via monthly meetings of a select group of permanent members, quarterly open events extended to a wide community of selected experts and continuous sharing of information relevant to cybercrime and through dedicated specific tools. Permanent members include internationally acknowledged organizations, both

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and

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, with a broad view on prevention, analysis and contrast of electronic crimes at European level, whose competencies might represent instances coming from whole domains of interest. Permanent Members formally commit to proactively share information with other members of the group in a non-competitive environment, according to a

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, and to actively contribute to the EECTF's activities, taking part to meetings and supporting the EECTF's development. Additionally, in order to make the most out of the competencies of the whole EECTF community, an Expert Group has been started, which gathers on a periodic basis and is restricted to Permanent Members. It focuses on technical information sharing about new threats and possible countermeasures.

Constituency

The EECTF is made up of the following organizations:

EECTF Community and Plenary Meetings

With the aim of aggregating all the potentially valuable stakeholders, an invitation-only Community of Experts has been set up as a public interface of the Permanent Members Group. It is made up of acknowledged professionals and organizations who are distinguished as active contributors in the field of prevention and contrast of electronic crime. The EECTF gathers in periodic plenary meetings, organized to focus on general trends in

and security issues of current interest. More than 10 Plenary Meetings have been organized so far, as listed below. Past speakers include: * APWG - AntiPhishing Working Group * CERT-EU * ENISA - European Union Agency for Network and Information Security *

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* European Payments Council *

Europol Europol, officially the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation, is the law enforcement agency of the European Union (EU). Established in 1998, it is based in The Hague, Netherlands, and serves as the central hub for coordinating c ...

* Italian Data Protection Authority * Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance * Italian Ministry of Internal Affairs * UNICRI - United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute *

* US Ambassador to Italy Additionally, a monthly newsletter, ''CyberNews'', is published within the community, to point out the most relevant events and trends in the cybercrime scenario.

External links

* Sandia National Laboratories,
Assessment of Current Cybersecurity Practices in the Public Domain: Cyber Indications and Warnings Domain
', September 2010 * UNICRI,
Impact of Cybercrime on business and Economy
', November 2013

References

{{Reflist, 35em Agreements Bodies of the Common Security and Defence Policy Collaboration Crime prevention Information technology organizations based in Europe Public–private partnership Security organizations

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Working groups