UK communications giant BT has teamed up with international law enforcement agency Interpol in a bid to combat cyber crime.
The new partnership, which was officially sealed yesterday at the Interpol’s Global Complex for Innovation (IGCI) in Singapore, will see BT provide the world police organisation with knowledge and unique insight garnered by its threat intelligence experts on the evolving cyber threat landscape.
Interpol hopes the new agreement will result in it being provided with vital intelligence that will allow its officers to take action against major international cyber criminals.
While BT already works closely with Interpol, and was this year one of only seven global companies that contributed resources to a major cyber crime operation run by the agency in Southeast Asia, the new agreement will expand cooperation between the two parties as they both step up their efforts to protect consumers, businesses and public sector organisations from the ever-growing threat posed by hackers.
BT is the first telecoms firm to sign such an agreement with Interpol.
Commenting on the new tie-up, Noboru Nakatani, Executive Director of the IGCI, said: “The scale and complexity of today’s cyber threat landscape means cooperation across all sectors is essential if we are to effectively combat this global phenomenon.
“Interpol’s agreement with BT is an important step in our continued efforts to ensure law enforcement worldwide has access to the information they need to combat these evolving cyber threats.”
Mark Hughes, CEO of BT Security, said: “Threat intelligence sharing between law enforcement agencies and the private sector is essential in the fight against cyber-crime, which is increasingly borderless in nature.
“Tackling cyber-crime therefore requires a collective, global response where the public and private sectors work hand-in-hand.
“BT’s security expertise will help Interpol to identify cyber-criminals and hold them to account, as we jointly develop our understanding of the challenges that we and other organisations face in the battle against cyber-attacks.”
The expanded cooperation between BT and Interpol comes less than a week after Europol used its latest Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment (IOCTA) to call for governments, law enforcement agencies and private sector companies to work more closely together on efforts to thwart cyber criminals.
Europe’s law enforcement agency also warned that company employees and members of the public must be better educated on the changing nature of the cyber threat landscape, and made aware of emerging trends such as social engineering and spam botnets.
“Law enforcement and the private sector must continue to work together on threat analysis and prevention initiatives such as the No More Ransom project, to raise awareness and provide advice and free decryption tools to victims of ransomware,” the assessment concluded.
