Microsoft today opened a centre of excellence for advancing the global fight against cybercrime.
The Microsoft Cybercrime Center has been built on the IT giant’s campus in Redmond, Washington.
It combines the company’s legal and technical expertise, as well as state-of-the-art tools and technology with cross-industry expertise.
Each year, cybercrime takes a personal and financial toll on millions of consumers around the globe, with 58% of adults in the UK having experienced cybercrime in their lifetime.
The Cybercrime Center will tackle online crimes, including those associated with malware, botnets, intellectual property (IP) theft, and technology-facilitated child exploitation, Microsoft said.
“The Microsoft Cybercrime Center is where our experts come together with customers and partners to focus on one thing: keeping people safe online,” said David Finn, associate general counsel of the Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit. “By combining sophisticated tools and technology with the right skills and new perspectives, we can make the internet safer for everyone.”
The centre’s international reach will be extended by 12 satellite offices or regional labs around the world in Beijing, Berlin, Bogota, Brussels, Dublin, Edinboro (US), Gurgaon (India), Hong Kong, Munich, Singapore, Sydney and Washington DC.
These locations will better enable Microsoft to identify and analyse malware and IP crimes, and share cybercrime-fighting best practices with customers and industry partners on a global scale.
The secured facility houses Microsoft technologies that allow the team to visualise and identify global cyber-threats in real-time, including SitePrint, which allows the mapping of online organised crime networks; PhotoDNA, a leading anti-child pornography technology; cyberforensics, a new investigative capability that detects global cybercrime; and cyber-threat intelligence from Microsoft’s botnet takedown operations.
The centre also includes a separate and secure location for third-party partners, allowing cyber-security experts from around the world to work in the facility with Microsoft experts for an indefinite period of time.
“In the fight against cybercrime, the public sector significantly benefits from private sector expertise, such as provided by Microsoft,” said Noboru Nakatani, executive director of the INTERPOL Global Complex for Innovation.
“The security community needs to build on its coordinated responses to keep pace with today’s cybercriminals. The Microsoft Cybercrime Center will be an important hub in accomplishing that task more effectively and proactively.”
