Portugal’s child porn pedophiles, online scammers and internet fraudsters are advised that a new police unit to combat all forms of cybercrime is now operational.
The Judicial Police now runs a National Unit to Combat Cybercrime and Technological Crime, replacing the National Unit for Investigation of Computer Crime which never functioned after its high-profile launch by the Passos Coelho government in 2015.
The Government said this new unit is 'Europe-compatible' and officers will work with their European colleagues in other international criminal intelligence and counterintelligence structures, particularly Europol and Interpol.
The idea is to "effectively combat cybercrime based on the collection and sharing of information on criminals, and to construct international teams that allow cooperation between police officers and the judiciary in carrying out transnational police operations."
The National Unit to Combat Cybercrime and Technological Crime (UNC3T), is based on Europol's ‘European Cybercrime Center’ whose focal points are child sexual abuse via the internet, card fraud and other electronic and virtual payment methods, pure computer crime and criminality using computerised means.
The new decree law, now passed by Portugal's parliament, brings together the various national units that currently are trying to tackle cyber-crime, into one unit using the European structure guidelines.
At an international level, the new UNC3T will give overseas police forces a single and permanent contact point.
