Kaspersky joins anti-cybercrime drive in Asean

Kaspersky Lab has announced its participation in a groundbreaking Interpol-led cybercrime operation involving public and private sectors across the Asean region.

Nearly 9,000 botnet command and control (C2) servers and hundreds of compromised websites, including government portals, were identified from the activity, said the global security company in a statement yesterday.

The operation was carried out from the Interpol Global Complex for Innovation (IGCI) in Singapore, the research and development facility of the world's largest police organisation.

Cybercrime investigators from Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam gathered together at the IGCI to exchange information on specific cybercrime situations in their respective countries. An additional cyber intelligence report was contributed by China.

Experts from Kaspersky Lab cooperated with the Interpol to share fresh cyber threat discoveries and formulate recommended actions along with six other private companies, namely the Cyber Defense Institute, Booz Allen Hamilton, British Telecom, Fortinet, Palo Alto Networks, and Trend Micro.

Being the only vendor able to detect the infection at the time, Kaspersky Lab provided the Interpol team with an exclusive report on a WordPress plugin vulnerability that has affected thousands of websites in the region, including those belonging to government agencies, universities, NGOs, and private businesses, said the statement.

Kaspersky Lab has also furnished the IGCI with an extensive list of 8,800 botnet C2 servers found to be active in Asean countries.

Formed from the words “robot” and “network”, a botnet is a zombie network of thousands or millions of internet-connected devices such as computers, smartphones, tablets, routers, smart toys, or other gadgets that are hacked and infected with special malware so that these could be controlled by a cybercriminal to deliver cyberattacks. Investigations into the C2 servers are currently ongoing, said the statement.

According to IGCI Executive Director Noboru Nakatani, the operation was ideal as it demonstrated a highly effective and beneficial public-private partnership in the fight against cybercrime.

“Sharing intelligence was the basis of the success of this operation, and such cooperation is vital for long-term effectiveness in managing cooperation networks for both future operations and day-to-day activity in combating cybercrime,” said Nakatani.

“Public-private sharing is a critical step in fighting cybercrime in the region,” said Anton Shingarev, vice-president for public affairs of Kaspersky Lab.