Europol‘s headquarters in The Hague was the setting for the EU’s policing agency to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Global Cyber Alliance (GCA). The two are to cooperate against systemic cyber risk. Europol and GCA will exchange information on cybercrime trends and run joint international projects on cybersecurity.
The two will initially focus on improving adoption of the DMARC email validation policies, a tool that enables computer users to authenticate email and prevent spoofed and fraudulent email. GCA has agreed to sign up as a supporting partner of the No More Ransom project. A third enlargement of that anti-ransomware project is expected.
Europol Director Rob Wainwright said: “Cybercrime and cybersecurity are cross-cutting issues, and key tools must be developed to keep cybercriminals at bay. This is all the more important considering that other crime areas, like for instance terrorism and human trafficking, are becoming increasingly cyber-facilitated. Therefore, establishing MoUs with organisations such as GCA, designed to confront, address, and prevent malicious cyber activity, is in line with the priorities described in Europol’s 2016 Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment (IOCTA).”
Phil Reitinger, President and CEO of the Global Cyber Alliance said: “We are bombarded with news reports of cyber attacks and breaches that compromise sensitive information or impair the operations of critical services or infrastructure, but greater awareness of the problem has not led to greater security. Cooperative relationships focused on outcomes, such as the one we are forging here today, will reduce systemic cyber risk in Europe and around the globe.”
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr said: “The partnership marks an opportunity for GCA to collaborate with European cyber experts and for members of Europol to learn about GCA and its innovative tools. As part of its core mission to reduce cyber vulnerability worldwide, GCA recently announced the release of powerful tools designed to combat phishing attacks and other cyber threats. These tools are free and available to organisations of any size, and it is my hope that through this partnership, others will be encouraged to develop and implement practical safeguards against malicious cyber activity. As a co-founder of GCA, I wish to thank Europol and Director Wainwright for their leadership and to congratulate GCA on this significant achievement.”
Troels Oerting, Barclays Group Chief Security Officer (CSO) and Group Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), is Global Cyber Alliance Board chairman.
