Criminal Code Mapping the Cybercrime Economy

Salam and good afternoon everyone and welcome. And now I've just arrived from the UK a couple of a couple of days ago. Very happy to be here. Had a wonderful welcome from everybody here. But in the UK and I'm sure this is happening globally, we've had some extraordinary cyber attacks on some of our biggest companies.

So Marks & Spencer, Jaguar Land Rover, and cyber criminals even went so far as to target a small children's school and threatened to put all their data online. I know all of you understand this this arena far better than me and I and Dicken to start with you, what's the sort of financial and cyber crime sort of story that you've heard in the last few years that's really caught your eye? Well, thank you very much Emily and thank you so much for having us on stage today at ADF W. I think I'm actually going to shamelessly big up my fellow panelists here Jeff White today. If any of you haven't read his book rinsed, the story of a global laundromat or listen to his podcast on BBC iPlayer, I'd really recommend you do it now because in your books you have some fascinating stories of real crime and real criminal activities that are leaving a trail of destruction behind them.

One I particularly think is relevant to this topic is how the Lazarus Group, which is a North Korean cyber crime operator, stole over 1.5 billion from a Dubai based cryptocurrency exchange. And I think Jeff, that all happened in the matter of hours, is that right? Yes, correct. This is the targeting of Bybit, a cryptocurrency exchange as Dicken said based in the UAE.

Very very big cryptocurrency exchange. Hackers believed to be working for the North Korean government hacked into not Bybit, they hacked into one of Bybit's suppliers and then got into Bybit. They stole as you said cryptocurrency to the value of 1.5 billion dollars, which is a serious contender by the way for the biggest theft of all time if you look at one theft on one victim valued at the time of the theft. And they managed to get the money out of Bybit in 2 minutes 36 seconds.

So even if it's not the biggest theft of all time, it's it's by a long margin the fastest theft of all time. It's absolutely amazing story. Thank you. And um Dicken, coming back to you. Each year criminals worldwide launder more than 2 trillion US dollars in illicit funds and steal more than 1 trillion in fraud.

When you think about cyber and financial crime colliding, what is keeping you up at night? Because certainly there are plenty of CEOs around the world worrying about it. Well, absolutely. So I think what keeps me awake at night is really the pace of technological change and how criminals themselves are using AI to further their own illicit profits and their own illicit activities. Have you heard of money laundering as a service or fraud as a service?

No. Well, what that means is it's now so easy for criminal organizations to go onto the dark web and very easily and cheaply buy ready-made fake profiles. So I'm not just talking about a fake passport or a stolen passport, but a full VIP service. And we all know everyone in Abu Dhabi loves a VIP service. What this means is that criminals can now go onto the dark web and buy not just stolen passports, KYC documents, but also deep fake videos, curated deep fake videos and voice clips, all tailored to allow criminals to bypass traditional tradfi or legacy tech solutions that some companies will still use with the specific purpose of stealing millions of dollars of other people's money leaving a trail of destruction and misery behind them.

And that's exactly why what we do at Themis is so important. Our mission at Themis is really to protect people and companies from all forms of financial crime, whether that's money laundering and sanctions to fraud, bribery, corruption, even some of the more hidden crimes such as the illegal trafficking of people, wildlife, guns, drugs, arms, etc. etc. This is interesting subject just to brought my attention right now. First of all, good afternoon everyone.

I know it's hard to get in with this crowd. I you know, I struggled half hour just to reach here and running through the mall to be here today. Alhamdulillah, I make it. In terms of giving the VIP services, that's truly what's happening. They they call it the big butchering scam.

People right now they are not searching in dark web finding your credential. They are coming up with the service as my colleague said. The service is like I create relation with you. In terms of the first day I will ask about your let's say birthday, what you like and that. These type of questions maybe the service will be for let's say 6 month.

I gather enough information about your identity, about your behavior, about the area where you will visit and I build sort of friendship with you. The AI get these patterns or these inputs to come up with the new tactics to perform the cyber crime or the financial crime to steal your credential and steal the at the end the money which get laundered later. So just a small thing. Sorry for hijacking your talk, but I thought not to miss this opportunity to add this on top of it. Fully agree Dr.

Ibrahim. Fully agree. Fully agree. And and And Jeff, from you, you you talk about how criminals from totally different worlds in in your book are teaming up to form what you call a cyber super cartel. That sounds pretty terrifying.

What's the most unexpected sort of alliance or method you've come across that really shows just how sophisticated these networks have become? I think again it's choosing example that's particularly relevant here in in the UAE. Um I've written a lot about North Korea and North Korea's activities and you might think that's a bit weird. I mean North Korea is definitely a country of interest, but a lot of people it seems very far away. The reason I'm interested in North Korea is it's it's the ultimate sort of two-for-one offer if you like for a journalist.

You can cover it as a nation-state threat or you can cover it frankly as a crime gang. That's the accusation against North Korea that it breaks into places and steals money and uses that to fund its weapons activities. Now obviously this leaves North Korea with the challenge that any organized crime enterprise has, which is what do you do with the money? How do you get the money out, wash it, clean it and so on. And they've come up with some very very interesting alliances, the North Koreans, including a chap who was actually living not a million miles from here in Dubai in the Palazzo Versace Hotel who went by the name Hushpuppi.

By day he was an Instagram influencer. He had 2.3 million followers. He was driving his flash cars and going to the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and so on. By night he was laundering money for the North Koreans, millions and millions of dollars of it.

And what that it was an intriguing story for a lot of different reasons, but what it pointed to was this idea that there is out there, as Dicken said on the dark web, communities of people who will provide services. If you've got money and you want to wash it and launder it, there is somebody who'll put their hand up and say, "I can help you with that for a fee." Hushpuppi was rich because he was creaming off money from the money he was laundering for people. So these alliances are really interesting and very very fluid alliances as well. I find it fascinating.

I mean, how do you know you can trust this guy Hushpuppi? You're going to give him a million dollars, he's going to launder it for you? These alliances form in very fluid ways. They'll do a little bit of work with somebody, launder a little bit of money with them, it works out okay, so the next deal is for a bit more money. Really interesting combinations of of actors in this.

Dr. Ibrahim, from from your vantage vantage point at the General Secretariat of the NAMLCFTC, it's quite a mouthful. How is the UAE factoring cyber risks into its national approach to fighting financial crime? Is there an example of a policy or initiative that shows what this looks like on the ground? It's actually rightly pointed and timely observed.

Actually the To answer your question, yes, we have we always try to work with our partners. As Themis one of them, we we work together to come up with the paper which we are announcing it today. It's about the cyber security and the effect of of it in performing cyber crime. Yeah, that one. Also we are encouraging other private and public sector to participate in engaging because they are our eyes in the ground.

So we we try to collaborate more with them in terms of getting that. Why cyber? Because that you know right nowadays the financial crime the traditional way of performing the financial crime get elevated with the new technology and introduce the cyber security threat which raise the risk landscape when it comes to financial crime. So from that perspective we prioritize the cyber security in our strategy when it comes to combating uh financial crime and anti-money laundering. So we encourage included in our security and the related subject which is like virtual assets.

We have another paper which is coming related to virtual assets and where the cyber can can be effective in or defending mechanism that can be effective to define such crime which associated with cyber. As you know all the technology the cyber effect is something prioritize our strategy and which is reflected in our action plan. So one of the action plan is to come up with the papers as I mentioned in the beginning and also to increase the level of awareness of the entities who's working in that field and come up with something that we can having let's say solid background addressing all the collaboration with the all parties in order to to reach to the right points where we need to focus. So that's meant to prioritize in our strategy when it comes to combating money laundering and CTF. It has to be incredibly comprehensive doesn't it that that to to to to tackle this this this level of crime because we're going to see it get more and more um sophisticated.

So so Deacon to you in addition to policies and regulatory efforts technology gives us powerful tools to spot and to spot and stop digital wrongdoing. Something I know is at the core of Themis and I know you're incredibly passionate about this. What innovations are making the biggest difference in this fight today and how can investors business leaders many I'm assuming in this room and regulators support and strengthen these efforts? Well thank you and absolutely as as much as we talked earlier around how criminals are using AI to further their own illicit activities we as business leaders across the public and private sector must stay one step ahead of that curve and the advantages we have now is that AI in our field is a really powerful enabler in the fight against financial crime and if used responsibly it allows us to do really really good things. Put simply it's because criminals are deliberately trying to hide and obfuscate their real behavior the real source of their funds and their activities.

And so what AI allows us to do is to pass and assimilate millions and millions of data points from all around the world both structured and unstructured data and put together those hidden connections those hidden patterns of behavior where we can not just show whether a person or company has indications of financial crime but also the probability or likelihood that they will be involved in financial crime and a lot of that is based on our criminal conviction data. So it's about analyzing the the digital footprints that criminals themselves leave and then matching that to our clients suppliers third parties and investors. So used responsibly AI can be a very very powerful force for good in the fight against financial crime. Uh and I think it's really important that we all take that on board. And does that does that does that mean um I just quickly want to throw a quick question to you to you Dr.

Ibrahim does this mean we're going to need to keep innovating because the technology is innovating which means the criminals are going to be innovating. So we are in a sort of race with the criminals aren't we? Yeah I guess there is a old say that criminal ahead of the game always. So they they are always without AI they will be ahead of the game but with the AI AI nowadays is helping us to create the scenarios which criminal would think to attack your environment. So with that said using AI in creating that possible thought which we call it scenarios that could attack my environment here where I create my defense strategy.

I will build my drills tabletops based on these scenarios created by AI. So I'm I'm trying to get all the possibility that the criminals will think of attacking my environment or financial environment to launder their money. So with that with the using of the AI and the help of the people who's working on creating this right algorithm designing it we will be ahead of the criminal before they think of the attacking our environment we will be ready with with our guns and defense system to protect our environment. Thank you and and for Jeff we're on the topic of truly what moves the needle in combating cyber crime and financial crime what's we've heard from Dr. Ibrahim what's one positive shift that you think in thinking or approach that could meaningfully improve how we address these these these challenges?

Yes so I want to pick up on this point about AI and defensive versus attackers use of AI. Look I'll be quite honest with you in the cyber crime community I don't get a sense that the cyber crime gangs and cyber criminals are actually using AI extensively. I've not seen much evidence of that. There's a report from Anthropic one of the big AI companies came out in August this year. They looked at a few examples interesting examples.

But the cooks are using AI in the same way that I am to like write better emails and you know audit their code it's not advanced use of AI. I will contrast that with fraud the fraud scene AI is an absolute game changer. Generative AI is fundamentally a deceptive technology the clue's in the name it's artificial intelligence. Fraud is a crime of deception it's obtaining pecuniary advantage by deception. AI generative AI is a game changer for fraud but the advantage that you've got the moment is there are companies like Themis and others who have been using AI for ages on the cyber crime side anti-cyber crime cyber security companies have been using AI for ages.

We used to call it machine learning. So there's already loads of work been done the system's already in place the money's already coming through. So on the defensive side I think the AI picture AI picture is good. We know it can be used it is being used by companies like Themis. On the attacker side they're still getting their head around AI.

They're still trying to work out how they can use this at scale make it work make money out of it. So the defenders can make some headway we can get ahead of the game. I think it's a good opportunity and it's a good story because AI can be used on the defensive side now a lot more than I think it's being used on the attack side. Others may disagree but that's my personal opinion. And Dr.

Ibrahim again the UAE the UAE has taken a collaborative approach to combating cyber-enabled financial crime. You're employing government industry and society to work all together. And I know that this new white paper that you've you've both released together provides concrete advice for businesses on combating cyber-enabled financial crime and you know as I was saying in London this is this has been incredibly damaging for some very very big businesses. For the business leaders in the room today what would be one concrete step they can take to actively contribute to the UAE's efforts in this space? This is a very difficult question I guess.

So they because they they are many things to take up with them. One of of the things is how you manage your data how you put the right data to your system. But by this AI can understand it. However if we and also the governance part of this data if each department comes with a format for the data at the end we will not come up with the right decision when we implement the AI on it. The second part is the awareness as you know the human is the weakest link when it comes to cybers or let's say the attackers as I mentioned in the beginning they there is a VIP service who's trying to gather your information through asking you simple question.

So if by raising the level of awareness of of people and how they should react to these scams call scams or malicious collecting data we will be able to defend and create the right mechanism to help our society for it. As you know the criminals work borderless. So we need also to share our thoughts share our intelligence without across let's say between companies between countries that will help us with to create the right intelligence to be proactive. So, the more you feed your friend, you create this group, this intelligence gets shared, the use cases. Maybe I got to get to know these five, six cases, but you got different cases.

Bringing it together, it will enrich the model of AI which we are aiming to build. That will protect and create the right defense in the ground. 100% and we're seeing it every day in our own lives. You know, my my own retail bank is putting up so many warnings, but we're also as as humans under under attack the whole time. I I could list maybe every week there is someone comes at me in in some form or other.

And and and and Jeff, I want to ask you, you know, you've explored some of the ways technology can help bring cybercriminals to justice. What's one clever investigative technique that actually gives you hope that we can fight back effectively? Um I think the most effective thing I know this sounds a bit of a lame answer, but honestly it's it's events like this. You would not believe the number of times, you know, you chat to somebody in law enforcement, to a police officer, an investigator, something happened and they just happened to have met a person at a conference event like this who is in the right jurisdiction with the right company who can help them out. And they just give them a ring and say, "Look, we're under fire or this has gone wrong.

Can you help me?" You've got to realize also that organized cybercrime gangs cannot have events like this. They can't book a nice venue in Abu Dhabi and have name badges and give out business cards. That's just not how it works. So, play this advantage, the advantage you've got where you are sitting next to people who are probably dealing with the same stuff day in day out and you can just get to know each other and swap details.

Like I say, that's probably quite an unexpected answer cuz you probably thought I was going to come out with some technological answer, but no, honestly it's human connections at events like this that often can make the difference. That's what I'd say. And Deacon, the final question to you, what's what's what's your final piece of advice um to our audience today? Many of whom will be worrying about the issues we've been talking about or or working around them. And and what's what's what's your sort of final piece of advice um to to to to how you how your company can help combat the threat of financial crime?

Well, thank you. I think we've heard a lot about the the threats today and also how the UAE is creating this incredible ecosystem to bring together the public and private sector. And that's so important because it is a whole system response. It requires government bodies, regulators, law enforcement agencies, and the private sector all working together to stamp out some of these criminal threats and activities. What I would say to this room, we've got a big audience of international CEOs and local CEOs.

I'm actually blinded slightly by lights, but I wonder if we could just have a show of hands here in terms of if we've got any CEOs or business owners or business leaders in the room. Just a quick show of hands to see Okay, so we've got a few there. Um I think what I would say is what's the difference between uh the founder of Microsoft and the founder of the Stahli Group? Well, the answer the founder of Microsoft is here in these hallowed halls of Abu Dhabi Finance Week celebrating a very generous pledge and donation to rid the world of polio. Uh the founder of the Stahli Group is hiding in a distant corner having uh his company and his lifelong work go bust because of a ransomware effect um where sadly they lost everything they had and the company is now in debt for 78 million dollars.

So, for those CEOs and business leaders in this room, would you rather be Bill Gates or would you rather be the former CEO of a now bankrupt business because of some of these attacks? And I hope the answer everyone will agree is it's so important to take action. It's so important to stay ahead of the criminals and really make sure that you are putting in the very latest AI technology and training across your businesses to make sure that you're protecting your clients, your staff, your stakeholders, your shareholders, and your business at large. And Dr. Ibrahim, one last question to you.

We've got um 40 seconds. Do you feel hopeful that we're going to win against the criminals? Yes, with these brilliant mindset here in the room, I guess we can do it. And I encourage everyone in the room to uh download a copy of the paper which we did. Uh and also to come up with their thought.

So, by this collaborative uh approach and everyone comes up with their thought on this area, yes, we will be able to be ahead of the game and we will be secure and living happy and will build a great future for our kids in the in the coming years.

And the right people will win, not the criminals. Thank you so much for joining us this afternoon. Thank you to the panel. Thank you to our brilliant audience. Um thank you.

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