BigPhish Pilot to Combat Cybercrime Launched in Collaboration between TNO, CFLW, ZCB and German Ministry of Justice

A pilot was launched for BigPhish, an application for Law Enforcement to combat illegal development and deployment of phishing websites with specific use cases in prevention, real-time intelligence and wayback machine. BigPhish was developed and conceptualised by TNO within the shared research program with the National Police of the Netherlands, based on a techno-economic analysis of the phishing supply chain. Its foundation is available as open source according to the COSSAS framework.

Goal of the BigPhish pilot is to translate this solution operationally, make it technically mature and future-proof its foundation in order to jointly realise the intended impact for a safer cyberspace. During CFLW Live on 13 June 2024, TNO and CFLW launched the BigPhish pilot on technical collaboration under the umbrella of the existing partnership agreement 'Joint Forces against Cybercrime'. The Bavarian Ministry of Justice and TNO have also signed a Memorandum of Understanding on 19 June 2024 to formalise their commitment to this pilot. 

The Central Office for Cybercrime Bavaria (ZCB) in Bamberg is expanding its partnership with TNO and CFLW. Collaboration on Dark Web Monitor - a search engine for the Darknet - has been underway since 2020 with the support of the Bavarian Ministry of Justice.

The new tool "BigPhish" has already been successfully tested by ZCB during an operational investigation. Such fraudulent phishing sites are "usually only online for periods of time, 24 hours for example," said State Minister Eisenreich. “And when a victimised bank customer files a complaint, it is usually too late and the perpetrators can no longer be identified.”

Source: CFLW and BR24 (German)