Brian Sims
Editor

Law enforcement facing global surge in ransomware attacks

WITH EVOLVING threats, technology and the pandemic shifting the foundations of policing work, senior police officials worldwide have now endorsed measures designed to boost the role of National Central Bureaus (NCBs) as a gateway between Interpol and front line law enforcement.

Meeting virtually at Interpol’s 16th Annual Conference for NCBs (which ran between 6 and 8 July), some 300 senior police officials from no fewer than 167 countries reviewed major initiatives ranging from operational and investigative support through to expanding Interpol’s I-24/7 secure communications network to national police and border control agencies.

The measures aim to optimise the performance and operational capacity of NCBs and also enhance international police co-operation through Interpol channels when it comes to combating transnational crime and corruption.

“In spite of the pandemic,” said Interpol’s Secretary General Jürgen Stock, “the number of records entrusted to Interpol by NCBs over the past year has increased by 10% to reach a record 115 million, demonstrating their role at the very heart of our global early warning system.”

With serious threats changing in lockstep with the pandemic, the meeting heard that ransomware activities generated US$350 million in 2020. That’s according to Chainalysis and represents a 311% increase over the previous year.

“A global strategy in response to the threat of ransomware is critical,” observed Stock. “One where we successfully build trust, see the effective exchange of data and maximise rapid operational assistance to law enforcement agencies.”

Ransomware and terrorism                                                                                                                        

Ahead of the organisation’s membership meeting with key public and private partners at the Interpol High-level Forum on Ransomware, Paulette Green (head of the Jamaican NCB and a Police Superintendent) said: “Law enforcement agencies must understand that, globally, there will always be new ways and means of committing crime using cyber space. On that basis, they should continually develop strategies to properly deal with these issues. Cyber-related evidence is time-sensitive and, when investigating any crime, law enforcement must be able to capitalise on such opportunities as soon as possible.”

On terrorism, Secretary General Stock explained that the global threat was now at a crossroads, with the territorial defeat of Da’esh opening up a new insurgency phase in the Middle East. In other critical theatres such as Africa, new groups have joined the terrorist movement, determining to battle Al-Qaeda for supremacy.

Senior police officials were also updated on Project I-CAN, a three-year Interpol initiative funded by the Italian Department of Public Security to combat the ‘Ndrangheta mafia group.

Noting that international co-operation via I-CAN facilitated the arrest of Rocco Morabito (a convicted mafia boss on the run from Italian justice) by Brazilian authorities in May, Federal Police Commissioner Bruno Eduardo Samezima (head of the Brazilian NCB) said: “I-CAN is one of the most relevant and operationally-driven projects Interpol has launched in recent years. It has the potential to be a real game-changer in the global fight against transnational organised crime. The cyclical approach being adopted can serve as a reference point for other future Interpol initiatives.”

The meeting closed with a call for member countries to engage in regional partnerships based on reciprocal efforts specifically designed to strengthen international police co-operation.

The Dark Side

Commenting on the Interpol gathering, Ilia Kolochenko (founder of ImmuniWeb and a member of Europol’s Data Protection Experts Network) informed Security Matters: “As predicted by many cyber security experts and criminologists, the ongoing pandemic will progressively exacerbate global poverty and push young talent to commit Internet-based crime. Deprived of fair employment opportunities or being offered very modest salaries in isolated developing countries, more and more school graduates and junior security experts will try their luck on The Dark Side as it pays very well. A monthly income of a ransomware gang member largely surpasses the average salary of a security engineer, let alone unstable pay-outs of bug bounty hunters.”

Kolochenko added: “Worse still, organisations are significantly disrupted by the pandemic with staff working from home and the myriad of interrelated problems that eventually render low-hanging fruit even for the technically inexperienced cyber criminals. Most cyber units of law enforcement agencies, and even those in the developed Western countries, are now struggling with avalanches of new complaints, often having no capacity to investigate ‘small’ crimes that can nevertheless represent a huge loss for an individual or a family.”

In conclusion, Kolochenko observed: “Governments should urgently increase the financing of law enforcement units in the digital space. If they don’t, in a few years’ time they will likely lose control over the Internet.”

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