U.S. Secret Service opens office to help combat cybercrime in Baltics

The U.S. Embassy in Estonia will soon house an office of the U.S. Secret Service, which will focus on helping the Baltic nations combat financial crimes, according to an embassy press release.

The office will open May 20 in Tallinn and will be staffed by four individuals, including an attaché, and assistant attaché, an investigator and an adminstrative support officer, according to the embassy’s website.

“It is primarily seeking to assist all three nations with the protection of their financial infrastructure,” according to the website. “To this end it will endeavor to reduce the losses they incur due to cybercrime, financial fraud, identity theft and through counterfeit currency.”

Estonia was chosen as the site for the Secret Service office in part because of “the investigative nexus it provides in combating cyber-crime,” according to the press release.

Estonian government computer systems incurred a widespread cyberattack in 2007, which officials blamed on Russian hackers.

Two years later, the FBI placed a cybercrime agent in Estonia to help the country deal with future attacks and to help investigate cybercrime aimed at U.S. interests.

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