Europol, Russia Have Great Future in Jointly Tackling Cybercrime - Ex-Chief

The European Police Office and Russia have good prospects of cooperation in cybersecurity, taking into account excellent Russian expertise, former Director of Europol Juergen Storbeck told Sputnik on Sunday on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.

MUNICH (Sputnik) — He pointed out that Europol could also benefit from sharing knowledge and expertise with Russia's law enforcement and intelligence experts.

"I see a great future for Europol's cooperation with Russia in [tackling] cybercrime. It is a global crime and Russia has excellent experts. One of the bests is Kaspersky [cybersecurity company], which is of the Russian origin," Storbeck said.

"It is not only true for Europol but also for the EU countries such as Germany and other EU states. It is a future but we are often faced with legal and political obstacles. It is a difficult process but I am sure that we are on the way to do it as there is a common demand and a… need for Russia as well," Storbeck stressed.

He reminded that the bilateral intelligence cooperation between Europol and Russia had a 13-year history.

"The agreement was signed in Rome and it is mainly strategic intelligence, strategic data but it [is] also technology and early warning system. It concerns terrorism and organized crime, mainly," Storbeck said.

The cooperation agreement between Russia and the Europol was signed in 2003 in an effort to enhance joint fight against transnational crimes.

In November 2016, Kaspersky Lab reported an increase in distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks on the country's state websites.

According to the Europol's European Cybercrime Centre, damage from cybercrimes to EU member states is estimated at 265 billion euros ($281 billion) a year.