Fortinet, a global cybersecurity company driving the convergence of networking and security, announced the launch of the Cybercrime Atlas, a joint initiative launched in Davos at the organization’s Annual Meeting by the World Economic Forum (WEF) with the support of Banco Santander, Fortinet, Microsoft, and PayPal.
By offering a first-of-its-kind visibility to disrupt cybercriminals across their ecosystem and infrastructure, the Cybercrime Atlas, which is hosted by the Forum, will help business, law enforcement, and government organisations track and help bring down cybercriminals and their infrastructure around the globe.
Cybercrime impacts everyone from individuals to global corporations and critical infrastructures and governments. It causes immense, though not always visible, damage to economies and societies. The Cybercrime Atlas was first conceptualized by the Forum’s PAC community, which includes over 40 private and public sector members.
The Cybercrime Atlas is a joint project aimed at creating a global information repository of the cybercrime world, which can be used to combat and prevent cybercrime. By leveraging the expertise of the Forum’s PAC, the initiative will offer a forum for leading cybercrime investigators, international and national law enforcement agencies, and global businesses to share information, create policy suggestions, and identify possibilities for unified action to combat cyber threats.
To create a complete view of the cybercrime ecosystem that includes illegal operations, shared infrastructure, and networks, the Cybercrime Atlas was created. The security industry will be able to disrupt the cybercriminal ecosystem more successfully, spend resources more wisely in the fight against them, and increase the cost of their illegal activities with the links between the information obtained about threat actors.
Since 2H 2021, the Cybercrime Atlas has benefited from a year of analysis into 13 criminal groups by specialized analysts and cybercrime investigators, using only publicly available information. The accumulated knowledge from the Cybercrime Atlas efforts will ultimately help to identify and disrupt the cybercrime ecosystem. The analysis will shed light on cybercriminal artefacts to aid industry, law enforcement, and government agencies to create a chain of disruption. The approach and initial findings of the group have been welcomed by law enforcement agencies. The uncovering of these non-traditional artefacts will help aid in the capture and successful prosecution of cybercrime gang members.
Fortinet’s FortiGuard Labs has been a leading figure in the field of threat intelligence for the past ten years. Its efforts have contributed significantly to combating threats from malicious entities and improving security measures for clients, partners, and governments globally. Collaborating and exchanging information with other threat intelligence organizations enhances cybersecurity industry capabilities and strengthens the overall protection of clients.
With government agencies, business associations, and law enforcement agencies around the world, FortiGuard Labs is dedicated to collaboration. Along with contributing to PAC and working with the WEF Centre for Cybersecurity, Fortinet also makes significant investments in additional international alliances, such as the MITRE Engenuity Center for Threat Informed Defense (CTID). Fortinet is also a founding member of the Cyber Threat Alliance (CTA), a long-time contributor to INTERPOL Gateway, and a member of the NATO Industry Cyber Partnership (NICP).
Derek Manky, Chief Security Strategist and VP of Global Threat Intelligence at FortiGuard Labs said “Disrupting global cybercriminal organizations requires a global effort with strong, trusted relationships and collaboration across public and private organizations and industries.
It is part of Fortinet’s mission to secure people, devices, and data everywhere, and Fortinet is proud to be one of the founding members of the World Economic Forum Centre for Cybersecurity and an active contributor as part of its Partnership against Cybercrime (PAC). The Cybercrime Atlas initiative is about driving real impact and is a coordinated effort to create a chain of disruption in the world of cybercrime. We are excited to continue our work with private and public sector leaders to help make our digital world a safer place.”
