Europol Creates “Violence-as-a-Service” Taskforce – Source: www.infosecurity-magazine.com

Europol has created a new operational group designed to tackle a growing problem of youngsters being recruited into criminal service provider groups that specialize in online and physical attacks.

Led by Sweden, the Operational Taskforce (OTF) is known as “OTF GRIMM” and includes law enforcers from Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Norway.

It’s designed to mitigate the threat from so-called “violence-as-a-service” groups, which use youngsters to commit a large range of crimes on behalf of their ‘clients.’

They are apparently recruited and instructed online to perpetrate crimes as diverse as drug trafficking, cyber-attacks, online fraud and violent extortion. Some may even be required to kill as part of their ‘jobs.’

Read more on young offending: NCA: Kids as Young as Nine Have Launched DDoS Attacks

Crime groups find the youngsters via social media and messaging apps, engaging via “coded language, memes and gamified tasks,” and appealing to their need to belong, according to Europol.

For the criminal networks in charge, employing these vulnerable young people provides an extra layer of underlings to insulate them from possible investigation.

OTF GRIMM has several goals:

• Coordinate intelligence sharing and joint investigations across national borders
• Understand the roles, recruitment methods and monetization strategies used by violence-as-a-service networks
• Identify and dismantle these criminal service provider networks
• Work with tech companies to more effectively detect and prevent recruitment via social media

Criminal gangs have preyed on youngsters for years, taking advantage of youth unemployment, the high cost of living and promises that their victims can enjoy a glamorous lifestyle under their tutelage.

Many young people in the past have been recruited to help crime gangs with money laundering. A report in late 2022 highlighted that as many as half of 16-19-year-olds in the EU engage in online criminality – including money laundering, hate speech and digital piracy.