INTERPOL, the international policing agency, is opening a massive
innovation center in Singapore
in 2014. At the center, law enforcement will learn all about the latest
cybercrimes... and have access to cutting-edge forensics laboratories and
research stations.
INTERPOL, the
international policing organization, is building a law enforcement tech geek
heaven in Singapore.
The INTERPOL Global Complex for
Innovation will function as a R&D lab, training facility,
and forensics lab for all things cybercrime. Slated to open in 2014, the Global
Complex for Innovation (IGCI) will be part of the larger INTERPOL Singapore Center. Staff at the IGCI
are expected to work on everything from combating child porn to creating
low-cost cybercrime research databases for poorer nations.
Michael Moran,
INTERPOL's Acting Assistant Director for Cyber Security and Crime, told Fast
Company on Wednesday that the main focus for IGCI would be digital security
and innovation research for police officers worldwide investigating cybercrime.
Moran appeared on a panel the day before at the Kaspersky Lab Cyber Conference in Cancun, where he claimed that most cybercrime-investigating cops worldwide had inadequate budgets, overwhelming workloads, and talent problems. As Moran put it, “recruiting long-haired geeks is not easy for law enforcement.”
Moran appeared on a panel the day before at the Kaspersky Lab Cyber Conference in Cancun, where he claimed that most cybercrime-investigating cops worldwide had inadequate budgets, overwhelming workloads, and talent problems. As Moran put it, “recruiting long-haired geeks is not easy for law enforcement.”
Beyond cybercrime,
police officers and researchers at IGCI will also be developing experimental
strategies to combat environmental crime, counterfeiting, corruption in
football/soccer, and Asian criminal syndicates. The complex will include
laboratories, conference space, and a museum-like space for tours geared toward
the public. INTERPOL being INTERPOL, the whole organizational process behind the
center is highly bureaucratic and intricate [PDF].
INTERPOL has not
yet formally announced what products and tools will be developed at the IGCI. However,
Moran mentioned to Fast Company that a heavy emphasis would be placed on
developing and enhancing open-source forensics tools for local law enforcement.
These open-source tools would aid police departments in poor and developing
nations--who normally don't have funds for expensive software licenses--in
solving more crime in less time. Moran noted that for law enforcement, recent
technical innovations have transformed the nature of crimefighting. While his
examples--computer-aided crimefighting, tear gas, and tasers--might give civil
libertarians pause, they also signify how law enforcement depends on gadgetry
just as much as any other industry.
The decision to
place the IGCI in Singapore
is part internal politics, part deliberate strategy. INTERPOL's current
president, Khoo Boon Hui, is Singaporean and helped land Singapore the
IGCI. However, locating the lab in Asia was deliberate; police officers and
researchers at IGCI will work in shifts with their cybersecurity counterparts
at INTERPOL HQ in Lyon, France and at another facility in Buenos Aires--guaranteeing
daytime coverage of most of the globe.
Apart from
developing tools to fight pirates and malware developers, the Singapore
facility will also feature a high-tech forensics workshop for disaster victim
identification. Following natural or man-made disasters, INTERPOL researchers
will use the lab to provide on-call assistance for local police and first
responders.
Returning back to
cybercrime, Moran claims that obtaining accurate statistics is INTERPOL's
greatest difficulty in the field. Rather than getting most of their information
on cybercrime from local police departments--which, by their definition,
includes everything from viruses to credit card theft to destructive
hactivism--INTERPOL receives most of their information from cybersecurity
firms. These private companies, of course, can sometimes resort to hyperbole
when describing the latest online threats. Meanwhile, law enforcement worldwide
is often confused when dealing with the online world... as the recent Homeland
Security hubbub over “Tweeter” proved.
As Internet giants
such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter mature, they are increasingly assuming
the roles of non-state entities. In the wake of the Arab Spring, the American
SOPA protests, and other events, tech megafirms now have their own foreign
policies for all intents and purposes. According to Moran, Google and Facebook
have become much more open to collaborating with law enforcement over the past
few years. This has been a sea change for police investigating online crime--in
the past, even with a subpoena, companies were much less likely to disclose
information involving users' identities.
For INTERPOL, who
are prohibited from investigating “political” crime--placing a large amount of
hacktivism outside of their bailiwick--the big question over the next few years
will be playing catchup with criminals using the latest tricks from torrent
sites, message boards, and even academic computer science journals for
financial gain. Building a large-scale cybercrime research center isn't just
smart policing; it's a necessity for police who want to catch the crooks.
For more stories
like this, follow @fastcompany on Twitter. Email Neal Ungerleider, the
author of this article, here or find him on Twitter and Google+.
