AFP will bust cyber crims in their lairs

Officers will be deployed to Africa, Europe and US as authorities pursue cyber criminals including sex predators.

New Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Australian Federal Police officers will be deployed to Africa, Europe and the US as authorities pursue previously out-of-reach cyber criminals including scammers, international sexual predators and intellectual property thieves.

Under the plan, officers will have the power to knock on doors, seize assets and arrest criminals from Nigeria and Eastern Europe to Brazil — a move described by AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw as an “offshore punch”.

Officers to be based in countries close to cybercrime hubs will work with international authorities to disrupt, arrest and charge individuals and groups targeting Australians through phishing and malware campaigns, siphoning superannuation accounts and ­romance fraud.

Cryptocurrency, used by cyber criminals to launder their ill-­gotten gains, is expected to be a target of the AFP crackdown.

Under new powers the Morrison government hopes to legislate before the end of the year, the AFP will receive technical support from Australia’s leading cyber experts attached to the Australian Signals Directorate and other ­security agencies.

Australians have reported losing more than $2.5bn to inter­national online scams between 2009 and 2019, according to the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission, a figure it describes as a low estimate.

Detectives have charged six men with a total of 49 offences as part of an ongoing investigation into alleged sophisticated cyber scams and money laundering of over $6 million. Pictures: NSW Police

The most significant cyber threats to Australia originate in Nigeria, Romania, China, Brazil, North Korea, Iran, Russia and former Soviet Union states.

Vietnam and Malaysia were in May also identified as emerging cybercrime hot spots by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

Mr Kershaw said the overseas deployment — boosted by 100 extra cyber police, technical specialists and intelligence analysts — would deliver “the offshore punch needed” to disrupt and dismantle international crime syndicates that were targeting Aus­tralians. “Just because predators and syndicates are offshore does not mean the long arm of the AFP cannot reach them,” he said.

“The criminal syndicates hiding behind keyboards are targeting the nest eggs of hardworking Australians, they are holding our businesses to ransom, robbing our universities of their intellectual property, and planning terrorist attacks,” Mr Kershaw said.

“And a tsunami of subhuman sexual predators are constantly targeting our children online. These are not victimless crimes and they are causing significant harm to our community. The AFP will respond to the cyber threat with renewed focus and enhanced capabilities to cause maximum damage to the criminal environment,” he said.

A new target development team will be established by the AFP — with the help of the Australian Cyber Security Centre — to deal with threat analysis, technical support and online discreet personas to limit the exposure of police officers.

ACCC chairman Rod Sims last month warned that several criminal cartels were targeting COVID-19 support schemes, ­including the early release of superannuation, and that there had been a dramatic spike in­ ­cybercrime during the ­pandemic.

AFP commissioner Mr Kershaw says the overseas deployment and extra cyber police will deliver “the offshore punch needed” to dismantle international crime syndicates.

In addition to romance fraud and malware attacks on business, an increasing threat to Australian companies is “business email compromise” and the sale of Imminent Monitor Remote Access Tools (IM-RAT).

BEC involves the impersonation of a senior executive or company to send fake invoices to customers that require payment or instruct employees to transfer funds into accounts controlled by cyber criminals.

The AFP has already launched Operation Dolos to stop romance fraud victims becoming money mules for BEC cyber criminals.

On June 6, there were at least four attempted BECs against Australian customers of an X-ray machine and other hos­pital equipment manufacturers, with invoices linked to the ­romance fraud victim’s bank ­account.

IM-RAT allows a remote user to access and view documents, photographs and other files, record all keystrokes entered and activate the webcam and microphone on a victim’s computer.

The AFP launched Operation Cepheus following a tip from the FBI, and uncovered a network of individuals supporting the distribution and use of IM-RAT software across 124 countries, with sales records showing up to 14,500 purchasers.

AFP Cybercrime Operations shut down the software, resulting in the execution of 85 search warrants, with 434 items seized, and 13 arrests. The warrants revealed evidence of stolen passwords, private photographs and video footage.

In Britain, a Liverpool man admitted to installing the illegal technology on three women’s devices, hacking the victim’s computers and webcams to spy on them and film them in compromising positions.

The AFP’s overseas deployment comes one week after the government released a $1.67bn cybersecurity strategy that supported advice from an industry panel led by Telstra chief Andy Penn urging tougher enforcement of offshore cyber threats.