Europol report highlights key crime trends

A new report by Europol has highlighted some key driving factors that will have an impact on the criminal landscape in Europe in the coming years.

A new report by Europol has highlighted some key driving factors that will have an impact on the criminal landscape in Europe in the coming years.

While many of the subjects touched upon are not entirely new in themselves, the report offers interesting insight into key trends that law enforcement authorities feel will pose risks to businesses.

IMB members might want to note that the report warns the transportation and logistics sectors to be ever more at risk of being exposed to cybercrime as they increasingly rely on the use of Big Data and cloud-based services.

“Organised crime groups (OCGs) involved in cargo theft will develop new innovative modus operandi to exploit automated transportation systems. These groups will attempt to infiltrate or control systems for flight, rail or other modes of transport and divert the routes of automated vehicles in order to steal their cargo.

“This high-tech hijacking will allow criminals to steal high-value goods without the need to be anywhere near the crime scene,” the report titled Exploring Tomorrow’s Organised Crime said.

Europol said OCGs will increasingly trade in data linked to transportation and logistics, providing valuable information to other criminals or to competitor companies. This data can be obtained by hacking and social engineering, as well as the physical infiltration of companies in the transportation and logistics sector.

“This data will include sensitive business information, personal data and intellectual property crucial to the infiltrated businesses. The outsourcing and provision of services by companies on a global scale will provide OCGs with more opportunities to infiltrate longer logistics' chains.”

The threat of cyberattacks in shipping and the supply chain is an issue that has already been highlighted by experts. The IMB has called for vigilance; for systems managing the movement of goods to be strengthened and action to be taken to close down cyber vulnerabilities in those sectors.

On the use of virtual currencies, Europol said this will allow organised criminals to anonymously exchange and use financial resources on an unprecedented scale without the need for complex and cost-intensive money laundering schemes.

It said some criminals will provide highly-specialised services catering to a relatively small group of clients. These services may include the infiltration of control systems or the physical infiltration of companies using sophisticated identity fraud scams with information gathered from online intrusion and investigation.

“Virtual currencies are an ideal instrument for money laundering. Entry to and exit from the system is via an exchanger. Exchange services are another niche service offered in the digital underground economy. However, legitimate exchangers are also exploited, particularly those which do not apply Know Your Customer (KYC) principles and offer multiple methods to ‘cash out’ including payments via pre-paid or virtual credit cards and Money Service Bureaus.”

The Europol report adds, “Once in control of the digital funds, the ease of creating new e-wallets means a launderer can easily discard ‘dirty’ wallets. In addition to traditional layering methods, cryptocurrencies use specialised laundering services known as 'tumblers' or 'mixers' to obfuscate transactions to the point where it is very resource-intensive to trace them.”

As far as organisational or corporate crime is concerned, Europol said targeting and investigating such crimes remain difficult as companies and administrations do not want bad publicity, resulting in the crimes being hidden from the public and law enforcement.

“Except where there are whistle-blowers, many cases of corporate crime only come to light once a larger group of victims is affected. The economic crisis has revealed serious and in some cases criminal misconduct carried out by banks and businesses to the financial detriment of millions of victims.

“While this substantial economic damage was not usually intentional, the wilful neglect of due diligence and ignoring of financial regulations in some cases amounted to criminal activities, as reflected by fines imposed as a result of several court cases in the US and Europe,” the report said.

Europol adds the globalisation of business through the exponential rise in foreign direct investment and the emergence of truly international corporations make investigating corporate crime an even more challenging task.

“Corporations already choose their place of incorporation to minimise taxes and some corporations may choose ‘light touch regulation’ countries where lax regulations and social acceptance of some criminal behaviours benefit business models that rely on some criminal activities to facilitate them.”

Towards this end it is worth noting that ICC, through its Financial Investigation Bureau conducts expert investigations into international financial crime and fraud, due diligence research and anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing activities for banks, financial institutions and national regulatory and enforcement authorities.

Source: European Police Office, 2015. The report can be viewed here.