International cyber criminals based in Eastern Europe and overseas crime gangs operating from the Americas, Asia and beyond will be a major focus for Australia's top crime fighting agency - the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission - next year.
ACIC chief executive Chris Dawson said cyber criminals based out of countries like Ukraine, and "transnational" drug gangs were high on his 2017 hit list.
Mr Dawson said he believed ACIC was making progress on organised crime gangs impacting on Australia, but he said their work would never end.
"The pervasive nature of serious and organised crime means we will always have a job to do," he said.
"I'm not going to hold out that we have stemmed the flow of serious and organised crime, we haven't, that would be naive to say so."
In an interview with WAtoday in Perth on Wednesday, Mr Dawson, a former WA Police deputy commissioner, said Ukraine and Romania were "over-represented" when it came to cyber criminal networks targeting Australians through financial and online scams.
So much so, ACIC cyber experts would soon be deployed in Europe to continue the fight against them.
Many of the international scammers were behind sophisticated investment schemes, infecting people's computers and holding their victims to ransom.
"They are targeting Australians (and) we've identified an increasing number of Australians are falling victim to financial scamming," Mr Dawson said.
"Technology is wonderful and we all use it, but we have to understand that while it has got wonderful advantages, it has some disadvantages and one of those is your personal and financial security."
Mr Dawson said ACIC had helped arrest several international cyber criminals recently in collaboration with other law enforcement agencies.
Most were now being indicted in the United States.
Mr Dawson said ACIC was liaising constantly with the FBI, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the National Crime Agency in Britain to clamp down on organised crime targets moving "hundreds of billions of dollars" in and out of Australia.
"It is the case that there is billions of dollars flowing out of Australia," he said.
"What that does, apart from the profits that organised criminals can glean from the harm and misery they bring, what it also does, it actually takes away from the Australian economy.
"These people of course don't pay taxes.
"If billions of dollars is going out of the country...it actually impacts on Australia economically as well."
Mr Dawson said a major wastewater analysis study on the nation's drug use was well underway and results would soon filter through from it.
ACIC and the National Research Centre for Environmental Toxicology are carrying out the $3.6 million study, which involves the installation of equipment at 50 wastewater treatment facilities across Australia, including seven in WA.
By calculating the population which uses each wastewater facility, real time data on the rate of drug use for each area can be measured.
"We will be receiving the first report (from the study) in March," Mr Dawson said.
"We will get real time data from a daily, weekly and monthly perspective.
"It's a really important initiative because we won't be relying on data that is two or three years old. We can inform not just police but educators, drug rehab agencies in real time where the problem is."
The creation of a new National Criminal Intelligence System would also be a top priority for ACIC to expand on in 2017, Mr Dawson said.
While a prototype is still being developed, the intention of the new system is to create an information and intelligence sharing database across law enforcement agencies.
"We now have the vast majority of Australia's law enforcement data fed into that system," Mr Dawson said.
"The prototype is working very well."
Mr Dawson was coy when asked if he would throw his hat into the ring for the role of WA Police Commissioner when it becomes vacant next year.
"When the job becomes vacant, I will obviously consider options," he said.
"But I've got a great job and I will continue to do it."
