Innovations in Detecting and Disrupting Crime-as-a-Service Operations

Crime-as-a-Service (CaaS) represents a troubling evolution in the cyber threat landscape, transforming criminal activity into a highly organized and commercialized enterprise. Like legitimate Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platforms, CaaS provides on-demand illicit services such as malware rentals and fraud platforms, making sophisticated criminal tools accessible to anyone willing to pay. This paradigm shift lowers the entry barriers for cybercrime, enabling even those without technical expertise to engage in activities like identity theft, payment card fraud, and physical crimes through digital means, significantly amplifying the scale and impact of criminal operations.

SAFEHORIZON offers computer law enforcement agencies (LEAs), emergency response teams (CERTs), and computer security incident response teams (CSIRTs) a toolbox with underdevelopment and improved open-source solutions that will be simple to plug-and-play, maintain, and adapt.

SAFEHORIZON aims to combat Crime-as-a-Service (CaaS) by leveraging intelligence from the clear, deep, and dark web, public dumps, and law enforcement datasets, combined with machine learning to extract actionable evidence for legal use. The project will deliver a user-friendly toolkit of interoperable tools, a monitoring platform for integrating these tools’ outputs, and a correlation engine to analyze large datasets. Additionally, SAFEHORIZON will provide datasets and notebooks to EU law enforcement and vetted organizations for easier data processing. The initiative also plans to disrupt cybercriminal networks by spreading disinformation to undermine their trust structures.

Privanova plays a crucial role in the SAFEHORIZON project by leading the Dissemination, Communication, and Exploitation efforts.

Privanova is responsible for creating and updating the Dissemination and Communication Plan (DCP), ensuring that all activities align with the project’s goals and key performance indicators.

Privanova will also coordinate the establishment of the SafeHorizon Community of Experts, a group of stakeholders who will provide feedback and guidance throughout the project.

Additionally, Privanova will lead the Clustering Management task, focusing on creating synergies between associated projects, establishing a coordinators’ network, and organizing Cluster workshops.

Lastly, Privanova will contribute to maximizing innovation, leveraging intellectual property, and developing strategies for the commercial exploitation of project results.