In its Africa Cyber Surge II operation, Kaspersky provided threat intelligence data to INTERPOL, helping authorities find cybercrime hotspots and secure evidence against those responsible for online crimes throughout the continent.
More than $40 million in damages were traced to the underlying network infrastructure, and 14 suspects were apprehended as a result of the investigation.
Multi-stakeholder operation Africa Cyber Surge is ongoing with the goal of protecting communities from cybercrime. From July to November 2022, Kaspersky participated in the first phase of the Africa Cyber Surge operation, which included a number of operational and investigative actions directed against the threat actors responsible for cybercrimes in the African area.
The Africa Cyber Surge II operation began in April 2023 and lasted for a total of four months across 25 different African nations. Under the guidance of the INTERPOL Africa Cybercrime Operations desk and the INTERPOL Support Programme for the African Union (ISPA), the action was taken in connection to AFRIPOL. The German Federal Foreign Office, the Council of Europe, and the United Kingdom’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office also provided assistance.
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Contributing to minimizing the effect of cybercrime
Kaspersky is one of INTERPOL’s commercial sector partners that has shared indications of compromise (IoCs) with the organisation. These IoCs include malicious command and control servers, phishing URLs and domains, and scam IPs. Since then, INTERPOL has facilitated communication and coordination between law enforcement agencies throughout Africa, making it easier to track down and apprehend those responsible for cyber extortion, phishing, corporate email compromise, and other forms of online fraud.
As a result of the Africa Cyber Surge II operation, member nations’ cybercrime departments have been fortified, and cooperation with key stakeholders including Computer Emergency Response teams (CERTs) and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) has been bolstered. Secretary General of INTERPOL Jürgen Stock said that this will “further contribute” to minimizing the global effect of cybercrime and safeguarding local communities.
Kaspersky’s Public Affairs Director, Yuliya Shlychkova, said, “In its mission to build a safer digital world, Kaspersky has been giving due credit to the importance of multilateral cooperation, involving the private sector, international law enforcement, and national authorities.” To guarantee African nations may reach its great potential without interference and respect for cybercrimes, “only by harnessing the power of effective private-public partnership can we give an impetus to the further strengthening of the cybersecurity industry in the African region.”
Operations like the Cyber Surge are vital
“As digital systems, ICTs, and AI become more pervasive, it is critical that public and commercial actors collaborate to safeguard these innovations against abuse by cybercriminals. According to Ambassador Jalel Chelba, the Acting Executive Director of AFRIPOL, “coordinated operations like Cyber Surge are necessary to disrupt criminal networks and build individual, organisational, and societal levels of protection.”
Kaspersky and INTERPOL have an agreement in place to share data and work together for the next five years. The deal also calls for Kaspersky to assist INTERPOL with human resources support and training. Since the agreement was signed, Kaspersky and INTERPOL have maintained a good pace of collaborative operations targeted at combatting cybercrime and awareness-raising campaigns to assist people become more aware of modern-day cyber threats.