Microsoft has opened an anti-cybercrime centre at its Redmond HQ to help protect web users across the globe from malware, botnets and intellectual property theft.
The running of the Cybercrime Center will be overseen by members of Microsoft's legal and technical teams who will be tasked with identifying and analysing a wide range of IT security threats.
To achieve this, the team will have access to a range of Microsoft technologies, such as SitePrint, that will allow staff to identify global threats in real-time.
The software giant said it will be welcoming input from third-parties in its fight against cybercrime by inviting law enforcers, industry partners and academics to work in the facility for an indefinite period of time.
The Redmond site's activities will be supplemented by the work of 12 further satellite offices located in Beijing, Berlin, Bogota, Brussels, Dublin, Edinboro, Gurgaon, Hong Kong, Munich, Singapore, Sydney and Washington D.C.
Microsoft staff working across all these locations will be encouraged to share information and anti-cybercrime best practice with each other, and the firm's partners and customers, as part of this clampdown.
David Finn, associate general counsel of the Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit, said the main aim of the initiative was to enable the firm's partners, customers and employees to pool resources to keep users safe.
"By combining sophisticated tools and technology with the right skills and new perspectives, we can make the internet safer for everyone," added Finn.
Noboru Nakatani, executive director of the Interpol Global Complex for Innovation, said for initiatives like this to be successful, collaboration between the private and public sector is essential.
"The security community needs to build on its coordinated responses to keep pace with today's cybercriminals," Nakatani said.
"The Microsoft Cybercrime Centre will be an important hub in accomplishing that task more effectively and proactively."
