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Crime Reporter
With new types of cybercrime emerging all the time and with manipulative and well-organised cyber criminals exploiting digital technologies to tailor their attacks and target weaknesses in online systems, networks and infrastructures, Interpol wants an urgent global response.
Interpol sees the complex and borderless nature of cybercrime as compounded by the involvement of transnational organised crime groups, underlining the need to mount an urgent, coordinated, and global response.
In the face of this evolving threat landscape, and the need for greater global connectivity, leaders from law enforcement, the private sector, international organisations and academia are meeting at Interpol’s Global Cybercrime Conference held between October 15 and 17 in Singapore.
They discussed new fields of cyber-attacks in order to stay ahead of future threats and help shape a more secure digital world.
Interpol Executive Director of Police Services Stephen Kavanagh said its extensive partnership with law enforcement agencies, public and private sectors plays a crucial role against cybercrime.
Josephine Teo, Singapore’s Minister for Communications and Information and Second Minister for Home Affairs also said: “Digital connectivity has made it easier for criminals to exploit new technologies to commit cybercrime, particularly scams, while hiding or masking their identities.”
“International cooperation with our foreign partners and international organisations such as interpol is necessary to effectively crack down on scam syndicates and ultimately recover these lost monies. We need to collectively take action as a global community to better protect our people.”
The conference also focused in particular on enhancing cross-sector collaboration to prevent, detect, investigate, and disrupt cybercrime.
“Cybercrime involves criminal networks that are highly-organised, interconnected, and generate revenue figures that many legitimate businesses could only dream of. They are everywhere, very powerful and are motivated by greed, malevolence, and financial gain.”
“Close international collaboration is essential, and this is where Interpol’s extensive partnership with law enforcement agencies as well as public and private sectors plays such a crucial role against such an insidious crime.”
Case studies featured at the conference include the notorious “phishing-as-a-service” platform known as “16Shop” which showed how deep and interconnected cybercrime has become.
The case involved criminals coordinating their activities across continents with advertising and selling “phishing kits” that enabled affiliates to exploit Internet users.
Victims were sent deceptive emails containing pdf files or links. When accessed, these links led to sites designed to collect credit card or personal details.
Some 70 000 innocent users from 43 countries fell victim to the scam, inadvertently divulging personal information such as email accounts and passwords, ID cards, credit cards and telephone numbers.
From just a few clicks data was stolen, resulting in financial losses, identity theft, data breaches, operational disruptions, and psychological and emotional distress.
Participants at the Interpol Global Cybercrime Conference also produced guidelines with best practices and recommendations for planning, coordinating and executing future activities against cybercrime.
Online Reporter