Tag Archive for: cooperation

Multilateral cooperation is key to success in securing nations from emerging cyber security threats, says Amit Shah

/in


Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday raised concern regarding terrorists using the dark net to hide their identity and spread radical material, and find solutions by understanding the pattern of these activities.

Addressing the inaugural session of the ‘G 20 Conference on Crime and Security in the Age of NFTs, AI & Metaverse’, the home minister said that India has taken giant strides in empowering digital security systems.

“The conference will play a transformative role in building a global cooperation network to strengthen the capabilities of nations and international organizations to combat cyber threats, including terrorism, terror financing, radicalization, narco-terror, and misinformation in an effective way,” he added.

The brainstorming in this congregation will help all the participant nations to achieve remarkable feats in security, he said.

The minister also warned of cyber-attack threat which he said is hovering over all the major economies of the world and “many countries of the world have become victims of it”.

To create a “robust and efficient operational system”, Shah said, “Terrorists are using the dark net to hide their identity and spread radical material, and we have to understand the pattern of these activities running on the dark net and find solutions for the same.”

The Home Minister also specified the need to think coherently to crack down on the use of various virtual assets.

Speaking at the G20 Conference on Crime and Security in the age of the Non-Fungible Token (NFT), Artificial Intelligence (Al) and Metaverse’, Shah further said “The Metaverse, once a science fiction idea, has now stepped into the real world.”

He said the metaverse may create new opportunities for terrorist organizations primarily for propaganda, recruitment, and training.

“This will make it easier for terrorist organizations to select and target…

Source…

Cooperation or competition? China’s security industry sees the US, not AI, as the bigger threat

/in


BEIJING — After years of breakneck growth, China’s security and surveillance industry is now focused on shoring up its vulnerabilities to the United States and other outside actors, worried about risks posed by hackers, advances in artificial intelligence and pressure from rival governments.

The renewed emphasis on self-reliance, combating fraud and hardening systems against hacking was on display at the recent Security China exhibition in Beijing, illustrating just how difficult it will be to get Beijing and Washington to cooperate even as researchers warn that humankind faces common risks from AI. The show took place just days after China’s ruling Communist Party warned officials of the risks posed by artificial intelligence.

Looming over the four-day meet: China’s biggest geopolitical rival, the United States. American-developed AI chatbot ChatGPT was a frequent topic of conversation, as were U.S. efforts to choke off China’s access to cutting-edge technology.

“This new technology contains a great potential danger,” said Fan Weicheng, Director of Tsinghua University’s Center for Public Safety Research. He clicked through a presentation featuring an AI-generated figure of Barack Obama speaking, illustrating the risks of deceptive images and video that can now be digitally created.

“The United States has a 21st century national security strategy. Russia has a national security strategy. Germany has a strategy. So does Japan,” Fan said. “We in China are also working on this.”

Chinese academics, Fan says, are working on an “early warning system” to identify and manage potentially disruptive technology, creating indexes and formulas to measure the impact emerging technology could have on China’s national security.

In the past decade, China’s AI technology has made rapid advances, fueled in part through cooperation with American research institutes and tech firms. As in the U.S., Chinese leaders are worried about advances in artificial intelligence.

A vendor sits near a board depicting surveillance cameras during...

A vendor sits near a board depicting surveillance cameras during Security China 2023 in Beijing, on June 9, 2023. After years of breakneck growth, China’s security and surveillance industry is now focused on shoring…

Source…

Andrew Neil claims US officials are praising Brexit Britain as it strengthened US-UK intelligence cooperation

/in


Andrew Neil has claimed that US officials are praising Brexit Britain for paving the way to strengthening the US- UK intelligence cooperation.

Mr Neil claimed that Americans were enjoying the fact Britain was able to make decisions about military and intelligence decisions without having to consult the European Union.

The former BBC journalist wrote in his weekly column for the Daily Mail that the US-UK intelligence sharing has become closer since it left the bloc.

READ MORE: Pound surges higher after UK and EU agree Northern Ireland deal

He claimed that US intelligence and foreign policy officials were “lavish in their praise” for the way Britain “unilaterally” extended its world-class cyber warfare capabilities to all of Eastern and Central Europe from the moment Russia invaded Ukraine.

He claimed that he was told by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson about the Aukus deal, the trilateral security pact between the US, UK and Australia.

Boris Johnson claimed to Alex Neil that Brexit was the reason behind the important AUKUS deal

Mr Neil wrote: “Boris Johnson claimed to me in London last week that the Aukus deal could not have happened if the UK had still been enmeshed in the EU’s common foreign and defence policy ambit.

Source…

Ransomware sentence indicative of cross-border cooperation in enforcement of white-collar crimes

/in


A United States court recently sentenced a Canadian citizen to 20 years in prison for his participation in the NetWalker ransomware attacks. The case displays the coordination of law enforcement units across borders in response to the threat of attacks that similarly transcend borders.

Background

Following a request from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation for assistance identifying a Canadian suspect in their investigation into NetWalker, the RCMP arrested Sebastien Vachon-Desjardins, a former Government of Canada employee, in January 2021. After his arrest, the RCMP searched his home and seized 719 bitcoin (worth approximately $35 million at the time of the seizure) and $790,000 cash. He was charged in Canada with mischief in relation to computer data, unauthorized use of a computer, extortion and participating in a criminal organization. In January 2022, he pleaded guilty to three of the four charges, and was sentenced by an Ontario court to seven years in prison. In addition, he was ordered to forfeit the bitcoin, most of his seized computing devices and all of the cash seized by the RCMP, as well as to pay more than $2.6 million in restitution to the businesses affected by the attacks.

Following his Canadian sentencing, Vachon-Desjardins was extradited to the United States, where he was charged with conspiracy to commit computer fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, intentional damage to a protected computer and transmitting a demand in relation to damaging a protected computer. Vachon-Desjardins pleaded guilty to all four charges. On October 4, 2022, a U.S. District Judge in Florida sentenced him to 20 years in prison, and ordered him to forfeit US$21.5 million. Restitution will be ordered by the U.S. court at a later date.

Ransomware attacks

As discussed in a previous post, ransomware is a form of malicious software designed to block access to data or a computer system. Ransomware often encrypts data or programs on information technology systems in an effort to extort ransom payments from victims in exchange for decrypting the information and restoring system access. These types of attacks have increased in frequency, severity and sophistication in recent years —…

Source…