Guardia Civil creates 84 teams to combat rise in cybercrime

THE Guardia Civil has created 84 new teams charged with the task of combatting the rise in cybercrime

Maria Gamez, the general director of the Guardia Civil, has today, Monday, October 4, announced the launch of its increased fight against the rise of cybercrime. It was presented during a press conference in Cordoba, held to celebrate the Institutional Week of the Benemerita force, and its patron, the Virgen del Pilar.

The head of the Guardia Civil explained that 84 teams, comprising 300 officers, have been created throughout Spain, for the prevention of, and the response to, cybercrime. This initiative is part of the Strategic Plan against Cybercrime of the Ministry of the Interior, designed to prevent, protect and prosecute cybercrime. It is also in place to protect the rights and freedoms of all users in cyberspace.

She was accompanied in the press conference by Rafaela Valenzuela, the government representative in Cordoba, and Colonel Juan Carretero, head of the Guardia Civil Command. “These are functional teams in charge of reinforcing the response in the matter of cybercrime, particularly in the face of online scams”, explained Maria Gamez.

Adding, “They constitute the first level of a specific response to cybercrime, supporting territorial units that are oriented towards citizens, carrying out the first treatment of this type of crime, while supporting the specific Judicial Police through the analysis of cybercrimes, and promoting quality dialogue with victims”.

The director continued, “The Civil Guard starts up these teams for the first time, and they will be operational from this Monday throughout the national territory, because until now it had, on the one hand, highly specialised teams dedicated to more serious crimes, and on the other, citizen security units in charge of that first response. Now, with these teams, we cover that leap between one and the other”.

Cybercrime is on the increase

Ms Gamez went on to point out that “Cybercrime has been increasing significantly in the last five years, and more since the beginning of the health crisis caused by Covid-19. The explanation is clear: the use of the Internet has experienced a boom due to confinement measures, and the network has been used more for administrative procedures, commercial transactions, and social and personal relationships”.

In addition, she pointed out that “the increased use of the Internet has been accompanied by a rise in crimes related to information and communication technologies, as shown by the data offered a few days ago by the Ministry of the Interior in 2020, where cybercrimes grew 32 per cent compared to the previous year”.

She concluded, “Currently, one out of every eight crimes committed in the demarcation of the Guardia Civil is related to the Internet, while five years ago, that proportion was one in 20”, as reported by diariodesevilla.es.

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