The Internet is the new underworld front line. Police, judges, lawyers and prosecutors must be trained to combat cybercrime, argued speakers Thursday on a European Commission cybersecurity panel.

Cyberterrorism has become one of the most high-profile threats to the economy and governments. Last week, reports surfaced of an attack on computers in the German parliament by an unknown perpetrator, and in April the Islamic State claimed responsibility for taking French television station TV5Monde offline.

“First responders to crime have to understand digital investigation,” said Wil M. Van Gemert, deputy director of operations for Europol. “To be honest, in most EU countries and beyond, the baseline knowledge in this field is still restricted and too low.”

The Council of Europe, for its part, is working on several initiatives, including building a wiki, to be launched later this year, which outlines the legislation and case law in more than 60 countries around the world.

This will help officials deal with jurisdictional issues, which crop up when police investigating a crime committed in one country need to deal with law enforcement abroad.

“Any crime these days will have an element of electronic evidence,” said Alexander Seger, executive secretary of the Council of Europe’s cybercrime convention committee. “If you talk about capacity building it means we have to train every single lawyer, prosecutor, judge and police officer in every country. The challenge is enormous when you look at it in these terms.”

Meanwhile, cybercrime is costing Europe millions.

The average total organizational cost of a data breach in Germany over three years to 2015 was $US4.89 million. By contrast, in Italy, it was $US2.75 million, according to a study by the Ponemon Institute, which represents a cross section of Fortune 500 companies. In Europe, of the countries analyzed, France appears to have the highest estimated probability of data breaches, while Germany has the lowest.

This difference is echoed around Europe. Some countries, like Estonia, are leading the pack. The country has beefed up efforts following a 2007 “denial of service” attack on its parliament, banks and other companies after a public spat with Russia over the relocation of the Soviet Soldier of Tallinn memorial and war graves.

Others are falling behind.

“Member states need to step up and reach at least an acceptable cyber security level,” warned Tunne Kelam, an Estonian Member of Parliament. “The European Parliament is calling on Commissioners beginning with Vice President Andrus Ansip to exercise positive pressure on member states.”

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