At the recent 2nd Interpol – Europol CyberCrime Conference in Singapore, I learned about the Turn Back Crime campaign from Roraima Andirani, who is the Executive Director of the campaign at INTERPOL.
Coming from a Security Response / CSIRT background, campaigns to create awareness for users are not really new to me. I have worked on a couple myself – from educating users about phishing and malware, to how to protect computers. These awareness programs are really important as they complement the technical solutions or policies already in place for addressing cyber security problems.
However, this particular campaign really excites me, for a number of reasons.
Firstly, it is from INTERPOL and the global reach they have means that this could potentially have a very positive impact across the globe. Secondly, this campaign, among other things, educates the public about crime and preventing acts that could support criminal activities (and organized crime). We all know that most of the crime committed – cyber related or not – are funded with money. So making people aware they might be supporting criminal activities inadvertently is a really powerful message to get across.
Last but not least, they are calling for partners from every sector to help in every way possible. From simply tweeting or linking to their Facebook page or providing training for Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) (especially on technical subjects). Everyone can pitch in, including APNIC and APNIC Members. And speaking of training and skills development, APNIC has been contributing in this space as well. For example in July this year, together with our partners, NZ Domain Name Commission, ICANN, and APTLD, we delivered a workshop for LEAs.
I suggest you check out some of the success stories and consider supporting this initiative in every possible way as this will certainly help in making the Internet a more secure and safer place for everyone. So what are you waiting for, let’s #TURNBACKCRIME.
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