Drug Policy, UN-TOC Watch

A clear breakthrough, but an uncertain future for drug policy at the Commission on Narcotic Drugs

Posted on 09 Apr 2024

Author(s): Ian Tennant, Ana Paula Oliveira, Jason Eligh, John Collins, Mira Sztanojev

Global Initiative

The LockBit takedown

...y law enforcement – including for press releases, decryption keys, news of affiliates’ arrests and indictments. Law enforcement had succeeded in ‘trolling’ one of the world’s most prominent cybercriminal enterprises.  The move was widely applauded across the cybersecurity community. Law enforcement even released a list of the site’s affiliate usernames because, as the NCA’s video of t...

Posted on 04 Apr 2024

Author(s): Jack Meegan-Vickers

Sustainable Development Goals, UN - Security and Rights, UN Cyberwatch, UN Reform, UN-TOC Watch, UNTOC

UN General Assembly recognizes a day to focus on transnational organized crime

...il society, the media and academia to commemorate it.   In the context of a complex geopolitical situation and polarization at the UN on key issues such as the negotiation of a new convention on cybercrime and the lack of progress and data from the UNTOC Review Mechanism, the designation of a special day demonstrates political recognition of the truly global nature of organized crime and the impor...

Posted on 28 Mar 2024

Author(s): Summer Walker, Ian Tennant

Eco-Solve, Global Organized Crime Index

Better data and technology cooperation are needed in environmental crime responses

...6), as measured by the Global Organized Crime Index.   Lack of resources and expertise, and, in some cases, unwillingness to cooperate with global counterparts is undermining investigations into cyber-enabled environmental crimes. Until recently, internet companies had been left to self-regulate the content on their platforms. Although this is changing with legislation passed by the EU and the UK,...

Posted on 18 Mar 2024

Author(s): Alastair Macbeath

APA-Obs

Rogue replicants: Criminal exploitation of deepfakes in South East Asia

...the highest increase in deepfake fraud in the region (25.3%), followed by Japan (23.4%), and the Philippines saw the highest growth in deepfake cases (4 500%). AI and deepfakes are also being used in cyber-scam operations across the region, where thousands of people are reported to have been lured to work for organized criminal networks and forced to defraud other people through online scams. As these ...

Posted on 29 Feb 2024

Author(s): Natnicha Surasit

Crime & Conflict, Global Organized Crime Index, APA-Obs

Organized crime on the rise in Myanmar as resilience wanes

...government. The conflict in Myanmar has not only increased vulnerability, but the resulting lawlessness has fuelled crime and enabled new illicit markets to consolidate. Myanmar scores 7.5 for the cyber-dependent crimes market. Cyberscam centres have sprung up across the country, particularly in border towns and special economic zones, facilitated by state-embedded and Chinese actors. The cybersc...

Posted on 26 Feb 2024

Author(s): Louise Taylor

Global Strategy

Time for a global strategy against organized crime

...d instability associated with criminality. The recent crises in Haiti and Ecuador are cases in point. These are accompanied by a wide array of emerging threats from synthetic drugs to piracy and from cybercrime to transnational fraud. A recent flurry of high-level meetings, including of the UN Security Council, INTERPOL and the G7, demonstrates growing concern about the scale of the threat. But a more ...

Posted on 23 Jan 2024

Author(s): Walter Kemp

Global Organized Crime Index

Corruption and crime, measuring the links

...he first vector on which governments globally need to focus in order to better tackle corruption is encouraging increased transparency of the state apparatus. In an era defined by rapid growth of the cyber space, technology creates opportunities for criminal organizations to proliferate. But, at the same time, it enables state entities to improve their work of making bureaucratic processes more transpa...

Posted on 01 Dec 2023

Author(s): Odd Berne Malme, Kosyo Ivanov