With cyberthreats often borderless in nature, Kaspersky Lab has been a leading proponent of the importance of industry collaboration. Its experts have regularly cooperated with INTERPOL to share fresh cyberthreat discoveries with police in its member countries. For example, Kaspersky Lab participated in a groundbreaking INTERPOL-led cybercrime operation that identified nearly 9,000 botnet command and control (C2) servers and hundreds of compromised websites, including government portals, across the ASEAN region.

Kaspersky Lab has also previously assisted in a global operation coordinated by the INTERPOL Global Complex for Innovation (IGCI) in Singapore to disrupt the Simda criminal botnet – a network of over 770,000 infected PCs around the world.

Furthermore, cooperating with INTERPOL has helped Kaspersky Lab experts to test and improve a free open-source tool that enables quicker and easier cyberthreat research: not only does it enable researchers to cut travel time, it also helps law enforcement quickly discover key artifacts left after a cyberattack.

Strengthening the existing relationship between the two organizations, the new agreement formalizes the exchange of data that can support INTERPOL in these types of investigations. The aim is for Kaspersky Lab to share information about its cyberthreat research that can help with full digital forensics to stop cybercriminals in their tracks.

“Sharing intelligence is vital in tackling today’s ever-growing threat landscape and we are proud to enhance our cooperation with INTERPOL in its fight against cybercrime,” said Anton Shingarev, Vice-President Public Affairs of Kaspersky Lab. at Kaspersky Lab. “Our experts are leaders in the field of cybersecurity research and sometimes we are the only vendor able to detect a particular infection at the time. By further strengthening our relationship with INTERPOL we hope to support law enforcement in new ways by exchanging critical information on specific cybercrime situations in respective countries. With cybercrime becoming increasingly complex and fast-changing, the private sector often stores valuable data about malware that can hold the key to solving a case.”

“INTERPOL’s new agreement with Kaspersky Lab  is an additional step in our continued efforts to ensure law enforcement worldwide has access to the information they need to combat cyberthreats,” said Noboru Nakatani, Executive Director of the IGCI.

“We have seen how cooperation with the private sector is essential in effectively tackling this global phenomenon which continues to grow in scale and complexity,” added Mr Nakatani.