Jürgen Stock, the secretary general of еру International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol), urged law enforcers and industry partners to collaborate to prevent an impending ransomware pandemic.
At yesterday’s INTERPOL High-Level Forum on Ransomware, Stock also noted that the best way to prevent future attacks is by adopting a coordinated international strategy, which is the same as the one used for fighting organized crime and terrorism.
Despite the seriousness of their crimes, the criminals are operating with total impunity, Stock said:
“Despite the severity of their crimes, ransomware criminals are continuously adapting their tactics, operating free of borders and with near impunity. Much like the pandemic it exploits, ransomware is evolving into different variants, delivering high financial profits to criminals.”
Ransomware has become too big of a threat to address alone, the global response to this challenge requires a united action, he said:
“Ransomware has become too large of a threat for any entity or sector to address alone; the magnitude of this challenge urgently demands united global action, which INTERPOL can uniquely facilitate as a neutral and trusted global partner.”
While it’s not clear how many police agencies around the world will respond to the call to arms, the past operations conducted by Interpol have shown that law enforcers can work together to fight crime very effectively.
Over 20,000 people were arrested in a year-long global crackdown on cybercrime as part of Operation First Light. The operation, which began in 2018, led to the seizure of over 150 million US dollars in illicit funds.
Then through Interpol, law enforcers were able to shut down thousands of websites that posed as legitimate pharmacies and pushed fake drugs and medicine.
And in operation HAECHI-I, a joint investigation carried out by law enforcement agencies and international organizations, such as Interpol, led to the recovery of over $83 million stolen from victims of cybercrime.
