At INTERPOL’s Global Cybercrime Conference (15 – 17 October) in Singapore in front of leaders from law enforcement, the private sector, international organisations and academia, the organisation stressed the need for greater global connectivity.
New types of cybercrime are emerging all the time. Manipulative and well-organised cybercriminals are exploiting digital technologies to tailor their attacks and target weaknesses in online systems, networks and infrastructures.
The complex and borderless nature of cybercrime is compounded by the involvement of transnational organised crime groups, underlining the need to mount an urgent, coordinated, and global response.
As such, new fields of cyber-attacks were discussed at the conference in order to stay ahead of future threats and help shape a more secure digital world.
Josephine Teo, Singapore’s Minister for Communications and Information and Second Minister for Home Affairs 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 organizations 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.
“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.
INTERPOL worked closely with Indonesia, Japan, the United States, as well as INTERPOL Gateway partners such as Group-IB, Palo Alto and Trend Micro, to take down the ’16Shop’ platform and its operators.
Participants at the INTERPOL Global Cybercrime Conference also produced guidelines with best practices and recommendations for planning, coordinating and executing future activities against cybercrime.
