Interpol’s First Digital Crime Center Officially Opened
In addition to its head office in Lyon, the Interpol Global Complex for Innovation (ICGI) will maintain global security efforts against cybercrime, as well as research and growth in building online security. The ICGI would target, among others, the bug known as Simda. This bug is depicted as a botnet used to “gain remote access to computers enabling the theft of personal details, including banking passwords, as well as to install and spread other malicious malware“.
According to Interpol, more than 770,000 computers globally have been affected by Simda. On April 9th, servers in the Netherlands, the United States, Russia, Luxembourg and Poland were hit by synchronized attacks.
“Cybercrime is a game changer for law enforcement. It changes the way police mount an investigation,” says Noboru Nakatani, Executive Director of the ICGI. “More than half of our 190 members don’t have digital investigation or cyber forensic capabilities. They don’t know how to investigate this new generation of crime.”
Wilbert Paulissen, head of the Central Criminal Investigation Division of the Netherlands Police, said the new center in Singapore “will help strengthen the fight against cybercrime worldwide“.
Nakatani explained that the IGCI, which officially opened on April 13th, is focused on providing operational help, capacity building and cybercrime research: “we have to increase the capability of our members before they can start investigating and prosecuting cybercrime“.
