Europol‘s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) hosted a ‘Mock Retail Cyber Hack’ with the credit card firm MasterCard. The exercise was intended to simulate a cyber-attack on European merchants. Held at Europol’s headquarters in The Hague, the event for merchant customers and their acquirers was for them to understand the steps to follow in case of a cyber-attack.
Those attending came from law enforcement, retail and banking, forensic investigations, the Dutch Electronic Crimes Task Force (ECTF) and Dutch Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT). Briefings came from industry and law enforcement on mitigating, investigating and assisting in the event of a cyber hack.
Since cybercriminals are increasingly targeting European merchants, thus triggering financial losses to the industry, Europol’s EC3 considers collaborations such as this an efficient approach to promote best practices in dealing with cyber-attacks.
The Hack also aimed at creating trusted contacts to aid information exchange. Organisers of the simulation sought to iron out the inconsistencies to ensure that e-commerce becomes more secure, thus discouraging criminals to commit cyber hacks.
The Head of EC3, Steven Wilson, said afterwards: “Organising this event together with MasterCard reiterates the importance of the cooperation between public and private entities in ensuring a safe environment for European merchants. Moreover, it allows each actor to fully understand their role in a potential Common Point of Compromise cyber hack. It provides a plan and the necessary know-how for merchants to be able to immediately remediate any such hack in real life and protect the financial data of as many of their customers as possible. We look forward to having similar events in the future, on an even grander scale.”
And the US-based Chief Security Officer at MasterCard, Ron Green, called security the number one priority for MasterCard and said that the company wanted to ensure that with the rest of the industry it was staying many steps ahead of criminals. “Mock Retail Cyber Hack is one way to ensure that by being better prepared to deal with all aspects of potential cybersecurity issues, merchants, and acquirers can quickly and smartly react by knowing what to do, when to do it and whom to involve in the aftermath of an attack. Quick action can also help ensure that the law enforcement community can do their part in fighting cybercrime.”
