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Cyber crime: The global battle
e-Crime Crackdown - does the UK measure up?

By Nick Heath

Published: Thursday 05 June 2008

Australia

Is there a central body to co-ordinate national reporting and investigations of cyber crime?
The High Tech Crime Operations (HTCO) division of the Australian Federal Police (AFP) collates reports on cyber crime from local police forces and co-ordinates large scale investigations. But generally there is no central point for the public to report cyber crime, people are instead required to report these to their local police stations.

The global battle against e-crime

1. USA

2. India

3. Australia

4. UK

Cyber policing infrastructure
The Australian High Tech Crime Centre (AHTCC), part of the HTCO, is described as providing "a national co-ordinated approach to combating serious, complex and multi-jurisdictional technology-enabled crimes, especially those beyond the capability of single jurisdictions". It links local criminal investigations to international law enforcement and government agencies.

Its portfolio consists of technical operations, technology-enabled crime, child protection operations, child sex tourism, special operations support team and cyber-safety teams.

The AHTCC also protects the country's national infrastructure from attacks such as large-scale distributed denial of service assaults.

How long has Australia had a cyber crime police unit?
The AFP created the AHTCC in 2003 to deal with cyber crime. This was rolled into the federal HTCO along with a number of other responsibilities when it was created in 2007.

Resources/expertise
The AHTCC provides cyber crime training and intelligence for state police right up to federal level.

It provides support to the wider AFP and can take on criminal investigations referred from state and territory police.

The HTCO division also has strong links to international law enforcement agencies, Interpol and the Virtual Global Taskforce.

The type of cyber crime dealt with
The High Tech Crime Operations (HTCO) division has a broad remit covering all types of cyber crime from online fraud to child exploitation.

Partnerships with business
The HTCO will launch criminal investigations based on tip-offs from industry groups, such as internet service providers, and also provides warnings about emerging threats online.

The AHTCC works with industry on tackling cyber crime and has formed the Joint Banking Finance Sector Investigative Team.