INTERPOL effort aims to harmonize cyber info sharing

Sharing cyber threat information and pursuing cybercriminals is a global issue, but coordinating among countries can be difficult due to varied resources and rules for sharing. The European Convention on Cybercrime, often referred to as the "Budapest Convention," is a helpful guide but INTERPOL hopes its digital crime center at Global Complex for Innovation will address the implementation piece of the problem.

"There are going to be countries that you deal with that have cybersecurity problems but simply don't have the means to deal with it, not even come close to addressing it," said Shawn Bray, deputy director of INTERPOL Washington, U.S. National Central Bureau. Bray spoke Sept. 27 during a panel at the Billington Cybersecurity Summit in Washington, D.C.

With the center, nations will be able to come together to set an agenda "that they can start applying international resources to and push out best practices and get out the information that's required to properly set up a meaningful exchange and a meaningful dialog," said Bray.

Regional cyber centers are being stood up now. For example, there's a EUROPOL center, one in the Hague and one in Singapore. These centers are forming partnerships and formulating information sharing agreements.

"I think it's going to require a complete rethinking of what is the actual information, what is required and at what level can that get from point A to point B as quickly as possible. I think the channels are coming together--it's just how are we going to be able to make the most effective use of them, that's the big question," said Bray.

Deconfliction of resources is another focus of the center. Bray said at one point it was not unusual for the Secret Service to deploy internationally to help build cybersecurity capacity in a country only to find upon arrival that the FBI had been there 3 months prior doing the same thing.

"It's going to be bringing these groups together and figuring out how to rough out those highs and lows," said Bray.

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