In the “Weekly Round-Up” we summarise and give extra reading suggestions for some of the past weeks financial crime news headlines, powered by Acuminor’s crime universe ThreatView® .
It’s nearly October which means that we are smack in the middle of the autumn here in Sweden, and this also means the start of Cyber Security Month. Over the coming weeks there will be many good cyber security tips, tricks and stories coming from cyber security firms, threat hunters, authorities, and many more. We have already seen a head start to the reports this week, so below are some excellent articles to look into.
To start off with a joint police operation. Europol supported a large police operation in Spain and Italy against online fraudsters linked to the Italian mafia involved in Phishing, BEC fraud, and SIM swapping. The perpetrators also used mule networks and shell companies for money laundering purposes;
Europol – 106 arrested in a sting against online fraudsters
Cyber Security Month is not all about the nitty-gritty details in code, networks or Malware analysis Technology is used to commit a wide variety of crimes and Fraud is often aided by the internet. UK Finance, which represents around 300 banking and finance firms, has released their Half Year Fraud report with interesting updates on the evolution of fraud in the UK.
UK Finance – 2021 Half Year Fraud Report
Ransomware has evolved, becoming more sophisticated, targeting more significant victims on an infrastructure scale with repercussions throughout society. It has also become more cynical, even targeting hospitals and schools during a pandemic. The USA Treasury has now targeted the first virtual currency exchange with OFAC sanctions for its participation in facilitating ransomware payments. In addition, they have also updated their advisory on sanctions risks connected to ransomware payments.
U.S Department of The Treasury – Treasury Takes Robust Actions to Counter Ransomware
We will, of course, both follow and participate in the upcoming Cyber Security Month, so keep your eyes out for more information. In the meantime, you can see what we pick up around the world regarding cybercrime and all other crime typologies that we monitor in our Daily news feed or head over to ThreatView to access our analysis on crime, components and how they connect to each other.