On March 28, the European Commission announced that a new European cybercrime center would be established whose mission would be to "crack down on major online criminal activities." The EUObserver quoted the EU home affairs commissioner, Cecilia Malmström, as saying that "more than one million [people] everyday become victims of cybercrime," and that the new facility will be "a hub for co-operation in defending an internet that is free, open and safe." Exactly who has jurisdiction and the issue of information sharing "present huge obstacles to the swift detection, investigation and prosecution of cyber criminals."

The new agency, which will be located within the offices of Europol and based in the Hague in The Netherlands, will begin operations on January 1, 2013. Initially, the center will operate with 30 full-time experts, rising to 55 by the end of 2013. The staff will be drawn from EU member states. The agency's initial annual budget is estimated at €3.6 million. The EUObserver also reported that at the end of 2011 "nearly three-quarters of European households had Internet access" and that figures for 2010 showed "over a third of EU citizens were banking online."