Belgium commits extra cash to the fight against cybercrime

Belgium will hire 50 extra specialists and allocate €10 million to the fight against cybercrime. Ten of the specialists will go to the Belgian Cybercrime Centre and the other 40 to the Federal Computer Crime Unit (FCCU) and the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT).

CERT said there were an average of 304 cyber incidents per month last year. The year before, there were 165 incidents per month. The FCCU currently has 27 personnel working on cybercrime at the federal level, plus 180 at the 25 regional computer crime units.

There are also three designated magistrates for cybercrime. CERT has five security analysts, as well as one for communications and another in charge of co-ordination. In addition to the €10m, the Cybercrime Centre will also get a budget this year of €1.3 million.