BT has taken another step forward to combat cybercrime by signing a data exchange agreement with Interpol.
Signed at the recent Interpol Global Complex for Innovation (IGCI) in Singapore, the accord provides a framework for threat information exchange focusing on data relating to criminal trends in cyberspace, emerging and known cyber threats and malicious attacks.
By establishing this data-sharing agreement, BT and Interpol said they can foster even greater cooperation between the two parties to protect families, consumers, businesses and governments against the rising tide of cybercrime.
For its part, BT’s threat intelligence experts will provide the IGCI with their knowledge and unique insight into the evolving global threat landscape, helping Interpol in its efforts to identify and act against cybercriminals.
“Tackling cybercrime therefore requires a collective, global response where the public and private sectors work hand-in-hand,” said Mark Hughes, CEO of BT Security in a release. “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 organizations face in the battle against cyber-attacks.”
BT and Interpol are hardly strangers.
Earlier this year, BT was one of the seven international companies with security expertise to provide assistance for an operation to fight cybercrime in Southeast Asia.
At that time, BT’s threat intelligence and investigation team, based at the company’s security operations center in Singapore, provided information on regional threats, including data relating to local hactivist groups and phishing sites.
During its probe, the wider operation uncovered close to 9,000 command and control (C2) servers, which are typically used to launch Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks and spread malware, ransomware and spam.
Because of the investigations, hundreds of compromised websites, including government portals, were also discovered.