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RCMP plans new investigative team as part of cybercrime strategy

The RCMP plans to set up a cybercrime team to investigate the most significant online threats to Canada's reputation and economy.

OTTAWA — The RCMP plans to set up a cybercrime team to investigate the most significant online threats to Canada's reputation and economy.

The national police force says the Ottawa-based team will probe cyber-related criminal activity targeting the federal government, key business assets and national critical infrastructure, such as power grids.

The initiative, to be fully in place by 2020, is a central feature of the RCMP's cybercrime strategy released today.

The RCMP wants to address the challenge of policing digital misdeeds when perpetrators -- and the evidence needed to catch them -- often prove elusive.

RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson told a security conference last week that police exhibit rooms are stacked with digital devices -- and the trick is finding ways to extract the valuable evidence on them.

Paulson says that while the Internet is a marvellous place, it has a dark and dangerous side.