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EUROPOL supported spanish police against cyber criminal

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Europol has supported Spanish police* in an operation codenamed Walker, to take down a serious cybercriminal group during a coordinated action in Barcelona. With on-the-spot support from Europol, the action in Spain on 6 July resulted in the arrest of nine suspects, the dismantling of a sophisticated illegal call centre, six house searches and the seizure of numerous pieces of evidence; over 100 mobiles phones and stolen SIM cards, more than EUR 10 000 in cash, credit cards, computer equipment and other devices were taken away for further forensic examination.

The aim of this investigation was to target the cybercriminals and their accomplices who were involved in large scale telecommunication fraud as well as channelling and cashing-out the proceeds of their crimes. The criminals made fraudulent phone calls to premium service numbers set up and managed by other members of the criminal group based outside the EU. Each cybercriminal had their specialty and the group was involved in receiving mobile phones stolen from tourists in Spain, then harvesting and misusing the foreign mobile numbers (until they were blocked by the telecom operators in their countries), before then sending the money earned abroad.

Law enforcement analysed thousands of financial transactions to reconstruct the money flows and destinations across several jurisdictions. The criminal group relied on a network of accomplices who operated the destination bank accounts.

This was a very active criminal group and the damage caused by them is estimated to be at least EUR 2 million, affecting victims in various countries.

This international revenue share fraud (IRSF) is an insidious form of organised criminal activity that generates significant profits for the criminal groups and undermines the legal economy. The global estimated illegal income from this type of crime is more than EUR 45 million. Cooperation between law enforcement authorities, Europol and the telecommunication companies was crucial for the success of this operation, which represents a milestone in this specific area of digital crime.

Italian activist Wounded in Kurdistan

Alessandro De Ponti, Italian activist , wounded by border police while trying to cross from Turkey to Syria was party to Treviglio with the idea of ​​supporting the resistance of the Kurdish Peshmerga as cooperating.

Our sources on site, near the Kurdish government,  deny there was no link with the young, and says that “no one knows him, has done everything from himself like a man who does not know who is in the middle of war”

It is not clear then what were the real intentions of the young ‘Italian activist who was detained by Kurdish authorities in Erbil that are proceeding to investigate this matter.

The case emphasizes the importance of greater attention to the verification of the foreign assets of the various voluntary and that are certified for operation in hazardous areas and in some way they can guarantee the safety of its operators certificandosi at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and with specific training courses.

Immigration: 2,900 people rescued

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About 2900 people saved in 21 procedures in Mediterranean Sea. These are the numbers of missions organized by the Italian Coast Guard and Minister of Transport.
To intervene, as part of the Triton, assisted by the European Union, CP906 ship courses and two class 300 patrol boats of the Coast Guard, and a Spanish military ship. Also engaged in rescue ship Euro Italian Navy, a unit of the Guardia di Finanza, an English Irish militaries, and the Moas ship Phoenix, now indispensable for the Italian authorities in many rescues conducted since April.

Premier Valls: “France faces more attacks”

BreakingNews @en/Europe di

Yassin Salhi, the guilty of attack on a factory near Lyon, was arrested. He had been already investigated in the past about his alleged links with Islamist militants.

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“We have no doubt that the attack was to blow up the building. It bears the hallmarks of a terrorist attack”. This French President Hollande said the day after factory attack near Lyon, where the owner was beheaded. “We have to learn to live with terrorism”, Prime Minister Valls instead denounced.

Meanwhile, terrorist action’s guilty, the Moroccan Yassin Salhi, was arrested and confessed to killing his boss, Hervè Cornara. Even the man’s wife was banged-up. The other attacker, probably of Syrian nationality, has not already found.

Salhi has moved on Paris special terrorism. French police just knew him because he was close to a Salif movement in 2006.
Giacomo Pratali

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Operation “Pangea VIII”. EU against counterfeit medicines.

The Hague: – “Our” European security agency Europol has provided its support to an Interpol operation aimed at dismantling a criminal network involved in the trafficking of counterfeit drugs, through online illegal pharmacies.
“Pangea VIII” is the name of the operation, which ended with the arrest of 156 suspects worldwide, and with the seizure of potentially harmful medicines, worth a total of $ 81 million.
The whole operation involved 115 countries and provided impetus to 429 different criminal cases. 550 were the ads for online sales network and well-removed from the 2,414 sites blacked out.
For the occasion, the European Agency – since its foundation involved in the security of the continent on the strategic plan, and even at the operational one – has seconded its experts at the Interpol HQ in Lyon, France.
Specifically, Interpol specialists and representatives of Europol have shared all the data in their possession, including those from the database held by the Haguean agency, finding numerous matches, useful for investigations.  They also provided valuable legal support to the BKA, the Austrian Federal Police, as well as the Customs Agency and the Health of that country beyond the Alps.

In addition to the discovery of a huge warehouse of counterfeit drugs in Indonesia, the various police forces involved focused on the e-mail accounts, on the domains registerers and on all those involved in delivering of goods and in electronic payments.
Among the drugs seized, they stood out  – obviously – those for erectile dysfunctions, for blood pressure and certain anticancer drugs. Many drugs were expired, or badly preserved and one of the tasks of the organization was right to alter the dates of maturity or the amount of active ingredient present in the contents.

236 was the number of involved police forces and agencies, and of course many of them were European ones.

To be noted is the fundamental and substantial support provided by some private companies and e-commerce giants such as Google, Mastercard, American Express and PayPal.
Another hit scored by the international police cooperation. Even and especially European.

European Agencies and ATM Security.

skimmer_800_800On June 10th, Europol and ATM Security Team reiterated their collaboration in contrasting the so-called “payment crimes”, during one of the three annual meetings of the Team, held to Europol Headquarters in The Hague. “Security team” means EAST, the European ATM Security Team, a European non-profit organization, whose task is to collect and disseminate information to and from installe  rs and bank ATM networks (ATM = Automated Teller Machine).

Europol Centre against Cybercrime (EC3) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with EAST, in order to further strengthen cooperation in the fight against all forms of crime linked to ATM cards and credit cards, including virtual fraud, i.e. those that are committed in the absence of normal magnetic supports, by malware or other hi-tech techinques, or by physical attacks to ATMs themselves.

The MoU will allow to exchange data and strategic information, between the Agency and the EAST, meaning that one of the three annual meetings of the tastierino-400x300same team will be always held at the Europol headquarters in The Hague, just as has happened for the first time in the abovementioned cisrcumstance.

Beyond the statements made by leaders of the two organizations, Europol has recognized the seriousness of the physical or virtual attacks to ATM systems, and has prepared a document containing guidelines about the threat. The document (the drafting was coordinated by the EAST) will be disclosed in the coming days and is an example of a coordinated response between security agencies and the world of finance banking, aimed to contrast the emerging and increasingly worrying growth of some criminal phenomena such as, for example, the “skimming”.

For non-experts, we point out that “skimmers” are devices that can read the magnetic strip of debit cards and credit cards, directly into the ATM slots. Obviously, the very high nanotechnology of these “readers”, is associated with the use of illegally concealed cameras, positioned in such a way to spy on the finger movements of the money pickers, recording the numbers that form the PIN sequence.Un momento della prima della firma del protocoloo d'intesa

EU and NATO a strong partnership

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Jointly declared the NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker during their meeting at the European Community

“The EU and NATO are unique and essential partners who share common values ​​and strategic interests.” Said Jens Stoltenberg, “We work side by side in the operations of crisis management, capacity building and policy consultations to support peace and international security “

A joint statement comes at a critical moment of the relations between the European Union and Russia in response to the NATO exercises being accused NATO of getting too close to the Russian border

“Our cooperation is particularly important – continues the Secretary General of NATO – in the context of a declining defense budgets in many of our Member States. We must strengthen the potential of our strategic partnership to minimize duplication and maximize profitability.

Stoltenberg knows that Junkers hope growth of the efforts of the member countries in enhancing the capacity to work together and in close cooperation aspiring to a European defense and effective.

It then waits with interest the June European during which you will have to look decisive measures to that effect.

Foreign Fighters: EU increasingly involved in the fight to terrorists.

consiglio-dei-ministri-dellunione-europea BRUSSELS: – In order to allow the best implementation of its priorities  for preventing and combating terrorism,  the Council was recently asked  to authorize the EU Commissione to sign, on behalf of the Union, the  Council of Europe’s Convention regarding the Prevention of Terrorism,  and its Additional Protocol.
Let’s start with a clarification necessary to non-experts: the European  Council, the Council of the European Union and the Council of Europe  are totally different things. The European Council is  a purely political  institution, which does not hold any legislating power. It consists of the Heads of State or Government (who participate depending on the framework of national laws) and only adopts a policy agenda of the Union.
The Council of the European Union, together with the European Parliament, is instead the body responsible for lawmaking, in the co-decision procedure. It consists of the individual national ministers, who meet each others in OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAcertain “formations“, according to the subject to be discussed, and legislate on the basis of groups and subgroups within the Board, which consist of officers and directors of individual government departments, competent for items to be discussed.
The Council of Europe is an international organization totally alien to the European Union, which aims to promote democracy, human rights, the European cultural identity and the search for solutions to social problems in Europe. It is composed by 47 Member States and was created in 1949.
This mandatory digressione is useful to understand that the adoption of the Additional Protocol to the Convention is an important step forward in the view of a stronger European response to terrorism, in particular against the threat posed by the in-famous “foreign fighters”. The protocol implements some provisions of resolution 2178 (2014) of the UN Security Council on Consiglio-dEuropaterrorists foreign fighters, such as the criminalization of activities such as travel to third countries for terrorist purposes (eg to receive training) or participation in terrorist groups’ actvivities or training for the purpose of terrorism. The Convention requires all Parties to designate permanent contact points to facilitate the rapid exchange of information about persons suspected of traveling abroad for terrorist purposes.
So far, the European Union has not signed the Convention and its additional protocol, but has implemented some of their provisions in the 2008 Framework Decision on Terrorism, which will be updated in 2016. Since the Protocol is an addition to the Convention, the Commission intends to sign both at once, to open the way for the implementation of their provisions. We look forward to the EU Council, in its “Justice and home affairs” formation. We hope it will give the green light to the signing of a document that will hinder even more growth and power of the subversive terrorist networks.

US-Russia: Obama runs the show

Europe di

Relationship between Us and Russia are becoming always colder. The G7 without Putin and the degeneration of war in Ukraine are the effects of this context.

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In the last year Washington’s strategy in the Middle East was to not bring out a State predominant in terms of economic strength and leadership in the Arab world. Meanwhile in Europe there’s a different strategy. Putin’s exclusion from the G7 and the threat of new sanctions arise from a precise intention.

Ukraine, Iran, West: the Us strategy is only one. Moscow must deal directly with Washington. And, then, go back to that bilateralism concise in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century. With Europe forced even more to a marginal role. With states such as Poland and the Baltics defended by the United States. The White House which uses the Russian ruble crisis and high inflation as charges against the Kremlin

And Europe? If China is a corridor to not completely block trade relations with Russia damaged by the penalties, on the other hand it’s becoming more and more a partner of choice with regard to energy issues. Recently, in fact, the second agreement, called “Western Route”, consisting of the construction of a gas pipeline linking the Western Siberia to Beijing.

If Europe is politically supporting the United States, is even more evident that the damage to bilateral trade relations but, above all, the gas matter, could do to change course policy leader of the Old Continent.

On this regard, the Ukraine, where the fighting resumed at a level almost equal to the previous step to the agreements of Minsk, becomes once again decisive: “If the crisis in Ukraine is getting worse – Maros Sefcovic, European Commission Vice President and Head of Energy Union said – and if Russia closes the gas pipelines to Europe, we can hold out for six months. But I think that is fitting in Moscow, as we are their largest customer, “he added again.

September will be decisive to solve the war in Ukraine.The partial recognition of the pro-Russian regions autonomy could be the starting point for thawing between the US and Russia. For these reasons, Putin journey in Italy has an important political relevance. If with Renzi it was reiterated the importance of a return to historical trade and economic relations between Rome and Moscow, even more significant was the visit to Pope Francis. The Russian leader is hoping to find an ally in the Pontiff and his will of a detente between the Catholic and Orthodox.

The relations with the Vatican, the need to keep Europe as the first partner for the supply of gas, the penalties like an obstacle for economic recovery in Russia. While there might be an international recognition of the autonomy of the pro-Russian regions in Ukraine, the end of hostilities with Kiev and the direct relationship with Washington will be crucial if Putin wants to exit from the Western isolation.
Giacomo Pratali

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Europol: Operation “Triangle”, cybercrime net dismantled.

Yesterday, an international joint police operation, called Operation “Triangle”, has led to the dismantling of a group of criminals, who were active in Italy, Spain, Poland, United Kingdom, Belgium and Georgia, and are suspected of committing financial fraud and intrusion in e-mail accounts.

The operation – which took place simultaneously with searchs in 58 homes in the involved countries – led to the arrest of 49 alleged members of the criminal group. Law enforcement officials from different Member States have seized forged documents and bank accounts, credit cards and cash, as well as numerous laptops, hard drives, phones, tablets, and SIM cards.

The brilliant operation, which was coordinated by the European Centre for the Europol Computer Crime (EC3) and Eurojust (the European agency in charge of cooperation in the field of criminal justice), and whose principal actors were the Italian Postal & Communications Police, the Spanish State Police, the Polish Central Bureau of Investigation and some law enforcement agencies in the UK, dismantled this organization and discovered an international 6-milions-euro fraud.

Money was earned in a very short time, because the modus operandi used by this criminal group was the so-called “man in the middle”, and was based on repeated attacks in telematics systems, through the use of malwares and social engineering techniques, against European companies of medium and large business volume.

Once entered into the corporate accounts mail, hackers began to monitor communications to detect requests for payment. Customers were then asked to send the money on bank accounts controlled by the criminals.

Criminals, mainly coming from Nigeria, Cameroon and Spain, transferred their illegal gains outside the European Union, through an intricate money laundering bank transactions.

To allow a rapid coordination, a fast communication between the different actors and an effective exchange of information, a coordination center was set up at the Europol headquarters in The Hague, which hosted all representatives from the different national police forces and Eurtojust.

In short, the famous former “third pillar” is finally working.

Domenico Martinelli
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