FortiGuard Labs has provided evidentiary support to Interpol and African Member countries as part of the Africa Cyber Surge Operation (ASCO) to help detect, investigate, and disrupt cybercrime through co-ordinated law enforcement activities, using Interpol platforms, tools, and channels in close cooperation with Afripol.
The ACSO is a multinational cybercrime suppression operation focused on identifying cybercriminals and compromised infrastructure in the African region. The Interpol Cybercrime Directorate and Interpol Support Program for the African Union (ISPA) collaborated with Afripol and 27 Interpol member countries to leverage this intelligence and combat the growing threat of cybercrime across the continent.
The successful Cyber Surge operation and transfer of knowledge to multiple law enforcement agencies in the African region is the result of continued threat information sharing and trusted cooperation between Interpol, FortiGuard Labs, and other Interpol private partners.
FortiGuard Labs provided actionable threat intelligence over a six-month period, which consisted of botnet, command and control (C2), and malware infrastructure research, including C2 and malware and botnet victims located within the African continent.
“The Africa Cyber Surge Operation, launched in July 2022, has brought together law enforcement officials from 27 countries, working together for almost four months on actionable intelligence provided by Interpol private partners,” says Craig Jones, director of the cybercrime directorate with Interpol . “This intelligence focused on opportunities to prevent, detect, investigate and disrupt cybercrime through coordinated LE activities utilising Interpol platforms, tools, and channels.
“This operation focused both on cybercriminals and compromised network infrastructure in Africa, allowing member countries to identify more than 1,000 malicious IP addresses, dark web markets, and individual threat actors, enhancing cooperation between Interpol, Afripol and the member countries, and contributing to connecting policing for a safer world.”
Derek Manky, chief security strategist and vice-president: global threat intelligence at FortiGuard Labs, comments: “The Africa Cyber Surge Operation is a shining example of how shared threat intelligence on threat actors and joint operations across trusted partners can increase the cyber resilience of an entire region.
“It also shows how valuable cybersecurity training and education is to help close the cyber skills gap and effectively disrupt cybercrime at scale. We will continue to work with our private and public sector partners such as Interpol around the world to help make our digital world a safer place.”
Fortinet has been an active member of the Global Cybercrime Expert Group and trusted partner to Interpol since 2015 and became an Interpol Gateway partner in 2018.