Garda to lead EU cyber crime unit operations
Detective Inspector Paul Gillen took up his position yesterday at the European Cyber Crime Centre at Europol, the EU police agency.
DI Gillen had been in charge of the Computer Crime Investigation Unit, where he worked since 1996, and was special liaison to the National Cyber Security Centre.
The CCIU is tasked with the examination of all media — laptops, cameras, phones and CCTV — seized as part of a criminal investigation and the extraction of information for evidence. Online child abuse accounts for the bulk of its work.
Justice Minister Alan Shatter said: “It is a wonderful achievement and a great reflection not just on him personally but also on the Garda Síochána and indeed Ireland.”
He said the appointment followed a competitive process among serving police officers in Europe.
From Dublin’s north inner city, DI Gillen joined the force in 1983. He served in Limerick and Dublin.
Last year he received an excellence award from the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors for his work in establishing a world-leading educational programme for fighting cyber crime and tackling international paedophile rings.
DI Gillen will direct operations at the unit, known as EC3, which will have 43 experts assigned to it.
A Europol spokesman said: “EC3 will focus on illegal online activities carried out by organised crime groups, especially attacks targeting e-banking and other online financial activities, online child sexual exploitation and those crimes that affect the critical infrastructure and information systems in the EU.”
DI Gillen’s appointment will be a blow for the depleted CCIU. Last October the unit was criticised in the courts for taking more than three years to process some prosecutions for child pornography. The Irish Examiner reported at the time that as well as losing staff, the workload of the unit had increased substantially in recent years.
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