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All it takes is a call or a text message.

There is always “some small indication” of future crimes, says Noboru Nakatani, Executive Director of the INTERPOL Global Complex for Innovation.

Artificial intelligence (AI) can help police identify patterns in what may seem to humans like unrelated incidents. “Now, we have the capability beyond human brainpower to find hidden linkages,” he explains.

SINGAPORE — Last month’s WannaCry cyber attack, which wreaked havoc around the world, has helped to increase global awareness of the ransomware worm, said a Dutch expert during an Interpol roundtable 
on Thursday (June 8).

Japan will set up its own pavilion at Interpol World 2017 in Singapore next month to show off home-grown cybersecurity technologies with government aid, promoters say.

Singapore is not exempt from three "mega trends" - cyber bank robbery, ransomware attacks and business e-mail compromise attacks - that have plagued the cybercrime world in the last year, said the executive director of the Interpol Global Complex for Innovation (IGCI).

Security researchers have identified a new strain of malware that targets the same vulnerability that helped ransomware spread to computers across the globe last week. And it includes far more threats than last week's attacker, making it potentially tougher to fight.

LYON, France – As part of its ongoing coordination of the global law enforcement response to the WannaCry ransomware attack, INTERPOL has hosted a virtual conference with  affected countries.

Immediately following the 12 May attack, information provided by UK authorities via  the INTERPOL National Central Bureau (NCB) in Manchester outlining the key malware features and mitigating actions to be taken was circulated to all 190 member countries via an INTERPOL Purple Notice.

PARIS: Another large-scale, stealthy cyberattack is underway on a scale that could dwarf last week's assault on computers worldwide, a global cybersecurity firm told AFP on Wednesday (May 17).

The new attack targets the same vulnerabilities the WannaCry ransomware worm exploited but, rather than freeze files, uses the hundreds of thousands of computers believed to have been infected to mine virtual currency.

Cyber attacks on governments and institutions have become a weapon of choice - and Singapore has not been spared the threat, said the Cyber Security Agency (CSA) of Singapore.

"Attackers are not just targeting government systems; they are (also) looking for any network that is remotely related to the Government," said Mr David Koh, chief executive of CSA. "Attackers are... always looking for the weakest link to exploit."

Even as hospitals in Britain scrambled to contain the fallout from a cyber attack that forced them to turn patients away, it rapidly became clear that they were not the only casualties of a massive ransomware campaign that appears to have infected organisations across Europe as well as Asia on Friday (May 12) night.

Fingerprints left at murder scenes could soon be checked against a national biometrics database using a mobile phone under plans being considered by Police Scotland.

The use of handheld devices in police forensic work is being looked at by the national force as part of its 10-year strategy.

Data breaches. First, they were the concerns of CISOs and CIOs. Some even lost their jobs after overmediatized breaches.  Then CEOs got the spotlight, especially as brand reputations were damaged and customers left angry and churning. Today, board members are increasingly more involved in discussions around companies’ cybersecurity and measures needed to prevent being thrown into the next big headline.

SINGAPORE – An INTERPOL-led operation targeting cybercrime across the ASEAN region has resulted in the identification of nearly 9,000 Command and Control (C2) servers and hundreds of compromised websites, including government portals.

The operation, run out of the INTERPOL Global Complex for Innovation (IGCI), brought together investigators from Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam to share information on specific cybercrime situations in each country. Additional cyber intelligence was also provided by China.

SINGAPORE: The Singapore Prison Service (SPS) on Thursday (Apr 13) detailed how it is embarking on its "prisons without guards" concept, with technology playing a prominent role.

To build a future-ready correctional service, SPS said it is using technology to enhance operational effectiveness and automate work processes, thereby freeing officers from guard duties to perform "higher-order jobs". There will also be greater use of data analytics to deliver differentiated rehabilitation according to the risks and needs of inmates, it added in the press release.

SINGAPORE: The host of Talking Point Steven Chia was engrossed in conversation with a friend at a food court, oblivious to the fact that someone else was watching and listening in - via his own mobile phone on the table.

The hacker, who was able to manipulate the phone’s camera and other functions remotely, was able to pinpoint where Mr Chia’s lunch location was, and even read the contents of an SMS message that he had just typed out.

Australia’s financial services industry is continuing to make heavy investments in bridging the gap between their services and their customers’ digital footprint. The latest example is ANZ Bank’s announcement that they will be using biometric technology in their banking app.

In a move that looks to heighten security as well as the customer experience, customers of the bank will now be able to use their voice to authorise mobile app transactions of $1000 or more.

FARGO—It just might be a low-tech fake email, not a high-tech hacking scheme, that makes it hard for businesses and organizations to safeguard information in modern times.

Firewalls and cutting-edge technology designed to keep networks safe and secure can be undone simply by asking employees to click a link. An email requesting employee W-2s that looks like it's coming from the CEO can turn a well-meaning worker into the unwitting source of a data leak.

Under the amended Computer Misuse and Cybersecurity Act, dealing in personal information obtained via a cybercrime such as trading in hacked credit card details is deemed illegal, as is dealing in hacking tools to commit a computer offence.

Any authentication method that gains in popularity will become a bigger target for hackers.

Eventually, mobile banking and payment apps will offer multimodal (and multi-factor) authentication for consumer and business customers. While this may bring additional security, the challenge will be avoiding additional customer friction. Multimodal biometrics, or a combination of biometrics such as facial and voice recognition, can offer a means to provide extra security to customers without requiring additional work on behalf of the customer

Interconnecting smart devices open companies, government agencies and individual consumers to a whole new world of useful applications. But while the Internet of Things (IoT) makes our day-to-day lives more convenient and dynamic, it also creates more opportunities for malicious actors to attack in ways that directly impact us.

POLICE are set to launch a 24-hour drone “flying squad” to chase criminals and hunt for missing people, it’s been revealed.

Devon and Cornwall Police have advertised for a drone manager to head up their new dedicated team ahead of a summer launch – with forces across the country expected to follow suit.

ICA reports fewer contraband, illegal immigrant cases

Smugglers have been using new ways to hide contraband, with more concealing them in luxury cars and even in common household items to avoid detection at checkpoints.

Researchers at the University of Surrey have developed an ‘all-in-one’ authentication system that will allow users to verify identity using their face, eyes or fingerprints — either in combination with or instead of word-based systems — on their computers.

SINGAPORE: National Servicemen look set to add cybersecurity skills to their arsenal. The Government earlier said it accepted the recommendation to implement this following a report from the Committee on the Future Economy (CFE). This also comes as militaries around the world are stepping up their cyber defences in response to growing threats.

SINGAPORE: To boost public safety, Singapore plans to introduce two new laws this year that will require building owners and event organisers to follow tighter security rules, said Home Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam.

Singaporean officials have confirmed that biometrics will play an important role as the country’s identity systems go digital.

Old criminals beware. The chance that you will be identified from long-ago collected evidence is growing exponentially as biometric systems and Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems (AFIS) improve.

Creating an environment to test cyber-security solutions is a time-consuming process, but that will soon be a thing of the past with the launch of the National Cybersecurity R&D Laboratory (NCL) at the National University of Singapore (NUS) yesterday .

While many would agree that everyone has a role to play in cybersecurity, there is room for improvement when it comes to cyber hygiene awareness and practices. This is according to the first Cybersecurity Public Awareness Survey commissioned by the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore.

A third of mobile users do not install security software on their phones, with most saying that they simply do not see a need for it, or are concerned that it would take up too much storage.

The WEF initiative recognizes the IGCI's Cyber Fusion Centre as an effective global information sharing platform against cybercrime. Reaffirming the Organization’s commitment to the initiative, INTERPOL and the WEF will co-host a workshop dedicated to the implementation of the initiative's recommendations at the IGCI in Singapore.

From a technology stand point, there are many vulnerabilities that could cause problems for your banking apps across the software development cycle (SDLC). These occur at the customer facing, front-end of the app as well as the back-end, within the device and the banking app level, and mean that banks need to ensure that apps have advanced authentication, including integrations into Active Directory, Oauth - and the like - built into their software development; as well as compliance with all the necessary essential industry standards, like PCI, SOX, HIPPA, Common Criteria and so on.

Security remains one of the top unresolved challenges for businesses. Billions of dollars have been spent on security technology over the last 30 years, yet hackers seem to be more successful than ever. Every organization is now under extreme threat, all the time.

As companies continue to redefine IT processes to cope with the semi-structured and unstructured data that characterize big data, they are also recognizing that standard data security practices that grew up with fixed-record, transactional data no longer address every big data security concern.

The prescription is a cybersecurity plan that covers all smart, connected devices to safeguard patient privacy and data integrity.

Catastrophic data breaches are affecting large enterprises at an alarming rate. When an organization is hacked, information including usernames, passwords and email addresses, as well as personally identifiable information (PII)—like a person’s date of birth—are all at risk. Breaches like these affect millions of users and are becoming increasingly widespread.

Data science experts and big data enthusiasts are excited and prepared for a future that's becoming increasingly connected to the web.

An Alibaba-backed mobile security start-up from Singapore will soon introduce, with a government agency, another form of mobile authentication to tighten security as more transactions are being done online.

Smart cities are coming.

Municipal governments around the globe are employing big data and Internet-of-Things applications to improve many aspects of daily life. Major tech companies like IBM, Cisco and Microsoft are in on the trend, and are battling for a slice of the $15 billion that's projected to be spent on software by 2021, according to Juniper Research.

BEIJING: China is to begin taking fingerprints of all foreign visitors as it steps up security on its borders, the Ministry of Public Security said on Thursday (Feb 9).

The fingerprinting of foreigners will be introduced at Shenzhen airport in the south from Friday, and it will then be gradually rolled out at other entry points around the country, the ministry said in a statement.

There are hundreds of security vendors across the security stack. You have providers for cloud, email, network and endpoint security, as well as threat, malware and DDoS protection, among phishing and whaling protection, insider threat detection and a whole lot more.

The trouble is, a huge number of these solutions don’t ‘play’ well with one another, with this often making life difficult for security teams adopting these technologies. 

Researchers have found that while brainwave authentication can be used as an alternative to passwords, being inebriated could make it more difficult for an individual to successfully login to a system, according to a report by New Scientist.

Biometrics as a technology has been in use for sometime but in limited ways. Its adoption in India, especially in the enterprise has not been as rapid. The advent of Digital India and especially the scenario, post-demonetization can speed up the process.

There were approximately 5.6 million incidents of fraud and cybercrime in the UK last year, new figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have revealed. Of that number, two million incidents related to computer misuse offences, highlighting how problematic this type of criminal activity has become.

The WEF initiative recognizes the IGCI's Cyber Fusion Centre as an effective global information sharing platform against cybercrime.

As the guardians of customers’ most sensitive data, banks are trusted to provide the gold standard in data security. And for most banks, that means a multi-factor authentication process combining passwords with PINs or security questions. But is that enough?

As 2017 unfolds, virtual currency (block chain technology), wearable tech and biometrics are all innovative trends set to influence the world of mobile financial services, trends that signify the evolution within the mobile financial service industry from a focus

Unmanaged risks from supercharged connectivity and the IoT, crime syndicates' quantum leap with crime-as-a-service, compliance risks from new regulations, and brand reputation and trust as a target will be the top four global security threats businesses will face in 2017.

Technology has navigated from being just a tool to make lives simpler to actually becoming our lives. Backed by the growing number of digital natives, digitisation has become mainstream. It has helped organisations create a digitised environment with innumerable innovative solutions and applications

Mastercard expects to launch in 2017 its "selfie" function to verify online transactions in Singapore and parts of Asia. This function, known as Mastercard's Identity Check, will allow consumers to use facial recognition technology to match selfies against facial identification, ensuring that the online transactions

In the area of security and fraud , there has been a consistent trend in the development of verification and authentication technology. How this trend will continue to impact the digital economy 2017 will be critical. The EMV liability shift in the US was widely predicted to see a spike in CNP fraud in the US

The increased appetite for mobile payments and mobile remittances on a global scale is a big incentive for payments companies and financial institutions to implement secure and mobile-optimized identity verification processes that keep valuable mobile customers engaged.

Advancements in biometrics will radically transform the driving experience, health wellness and wellbeing (HWW), and security of vehicles by 2025, research firm Frost & Sullivan predicts.  As one in three new passenger vehicles begin to feature fingerprint recognition, iris recognition, voice recognition

Attempts to spread fake news cannot be avoided; a great cyber wall cannot be created to protect us from every cyber attack and the changes to society brought about by fast-paced technological change cannot be stopped. Therefore, the best solution is to develop resilience all through society 

Officials from the Solomon Islands have launched what they have called the first ePassport system in the South Pacific region. Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare officially launched the e-passport system on Thursday, at the Honiara International Terminal. 

CUTTACK: A state-of-the-art cyber forensic division will start functioning at the State Forensic Science Laboratory in Bhubaneswar from March 2017, said special DG (crime branch) B K Sharma.The new cyber forensic division will ensure efficient and timely investigation of cyber crimes cases. 

Consumer applications represent 66 percent of the total hardware biometrics market today, compared with only 2 percent in 2010.The consumer sector will continue its strong growth at 10.4 percent compound annual

Britain’s Luton Airport has responded to increasing demand by installing five new biometric ePassport gates. The facial recognition-enabled gates bring the total number at Luton to 15. The airport recorded a 13 per cent increase in passengers in November, its 32nd consecutive

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) plans to add over 200,000 Android and iOS apps to a software library that helps digital forensics investigators target potential evidence.NIST, the government-funded 

The Myanmar government is conducting a pilot project to substitute paper National Registration Cards with “smarter” digital identification cards in Naypyidaw and Mandalay.Speaking in the country’s assembley, Minister U Thein Swe revealed details of the project

Korean researchers have developed new biometric personal authentication technology that recognizes and analyzes multiple user information and context, the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) said Wednesday.

Update in app allows users to log in by using biometric authentication, including fingerprint, voice, and facial recognition. This should help alleviate the kinds of security concerns that can hinder adoption of mobile banking apps. Security concerns are common with nonmobile banking users.

Most iOS apps in the enterprise pose potential security risks, according to research by Appthority. Only 3% of the top 200 iOS apps installed on enterprise devices worldwide have fully implemented Apple’s coming data encryption requirements research shows.

Biologically-based verification methods — voice verification, facial recognition, fingerprints, retina scanning — are not only simple for consumers to use, but also far more difficult to maliciously compromise than other security methods. Biometric-based verification

Increased utilization of computers across various industries and for numerous applications, the risk of cyber-crimes has been sharply increased lately.

Biometric authentication is now ready to move beyond fingerprints alone and use a range of identifiers, from facial recognition to voiceprints. These methods will become part of many more consumers' lives, installed on an estimated 190 million mobile devices

Information from home surveillance cameras to help fight crime in local communities.The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department is hoping you'll share some information with them about your cameras to help them fight crime in your community.

Lately Big Data has been put to use in the ongoing battle to stay one step ahead of the hackers and malicious actors. Today, advanced analytics and cutting edge technology such as machine learning are put to work

Eye scanners, fingerprinting, and other biometrics may soon be coming to a car near you. The market for biometric vehicle access systems, currently at an estimated $442.7 million, is projected to nearly double by 2021

Cybersecurity is now a top concern for businesses, but the reality is that it should have been on their radar years ago. Why did businesses wait so long to invest in cybersecurity? Cybersecurity is an increasing concern in the enterprise as the number of high-profile breaches

By working separately, these two teams aren't operating as efficiently as they could and are missing huge opportunities. Security and privacy teams have equally important jobs:to understand and identify any risks to an organization through their respective focuses.

Boiling down to industries, nowhere are innovations emerging as quickly than in the financial services landscape, where financial technology (FinTech) is blazing through and disrupting traditional structures

The pace of technology improvements in hardware and software has resulted in rapid adoption of cloud storage and computing, the emergence of a new way of managing IT development known as Agile that shortens product development

SINGAPORE — Laptops, personal computers, tablets, smart home automation devices and apps, as well as drones may be among the most popular gifts during the festive season, but they are also the most vulnerable to security risks.

Connected home devices occupy the wild west in terms of security and privacy practices; there's little to no regulation in terms of the software that powers smart homes. BITAG says some IoT devices have security vulnerabilities relating to outdated software

In a report obtained by The Associated Press, the Homeland Security Department portrayed runaway security problems with a range of devices that have been made internet-capable in recent years. 

Taking cyber security to the next level, the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) is now accepting applications to be part of the pioneer batch for its Master of Science in Security by Design (MSSD).

BEIJING: Global police cooperation agency Interpol elected a senior Chinese public security official as president, Chinese state media said on Thursday, in what could be a boost to Beijing's domestic anti-graft crackdown.

BALI, Indonesia – The lack of biometric data being shared on terrorists at the international level is creating a dangerous security gap for exploitation by returning foreign terrorist fighters.

Payments companies are the most concerned of all financial industry players about losing parts of their business to the ubiquitous Fintech competition. So how are they fighting back? To tackle the ever larger challenge,payment companies have been amongst the most active