To enhance and combat cybercrime, AFRIPOL and Group-IB, a cybersecurity company headquartered in Singapore have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). AFRIPOL is an institution of the African Union tasked with enhancing the collaboration among police forces of AU Member States to prevent and combat transnational organized crime, terrorism, and cybercrime.
The MoU signed by Jalel Chelba, Ag Executive Director, AFRIPIL and Dmitry Volvok, Founder and CEO, Group-IB, focusses on fostering collaboration between Group-IB and AFRIPOL towards fighting cybercrime in Africa.
This recent collaboration with Group IB will lead to the development and execution of shared initiatives by Group-IB and AFRIPOL, focusing on the surveillance of cyber threats, the prevention of scam and phishing activities, the tracking of compromised payment details, the enhancement of cyber threat awareness, and, naturally, apprehension efforts—all aimed at a singular objective: combating cybercrime.
The duo will work together by exchanging intelligence on threats, share insights on cyber crime and criminals, collaborative investigations and operations against cybercrime within Africa. Group-IB will share its specialised technological knowledge in reverse engineering, incident management, and cyber investigations with AFRIPOL’s personnel throughout Africa’s member states.
The Acting Executive Director of AFRIPOL, Jalel Chelba, stated in a press note, Africa is witnessing the fastest growth in internet and mobile telephony at present. This digital expansion offers numerous advantages to African nations while simultaneously making them vulnerable to cybercriminals who exploit cyberspace for illicit activities.
“Therefore, combating cybercrime necessitates robust collaboration among all relevant stakeholders, both from the public and private sectors. Such partnerships are crucial for enhancing the capabilities of AFRIPOL’s Member States to dismantle criminal networks and build protection at individual, organizational, and societal levels.”
Currently, AFRIPOL has initiated partnerships with global, regional, and local law enforcement bodies to assist the African police forces in addressing cybercrimes, organised crime and even terrorism. In 2023, AFRIPOL and Interpol jointly conducted the Africa Cyber Surge operation. It is a support Program for the African Union in relation to AFRIPOL (ISPA).
It multinational cybercrime suppression initiative focused on identifying cybercriminals and compromised infrastructure in Africa. During the four-month operation, Group-IB provided timely cyber threat intelligence to facilitate cooperation between INTERPOL’s Cybercrime Directorate, AFRIPOL and African countries.
Several key results of the operation included amongst others the arrest of 10 individuals linked to scam and fraud activities worth $800,000, the takedown by the authorities in Eritrea of a darknet market that was selling hacking tools, and action taken against more than 200,000 pieces of malicious infrastructure that was facilitating cybercrime across Africa.
“An agreement with AFRIPOL is a major milestone in Group-IB’s history as it allows us to further extend our mission of fighting cybercrime on the African continent,” commented Dmitry Volkov, CEO and co-founder of Group-IB.
The Middle East and Africa region has been a key focus for the company. The team established its Middle East & Africa Digital Crime Resistance Center in Dubai in 2021.
As a private sector partner of INTERPOL, Group-IB was involved in multiple INTERPOL-led operations targeting scammers in the region, including Nervone, Delilah, Lyrebird, and Falcon I and II.
During these initiatives, Group-IB team helped to track down and identify the cybercriminals involved in massive BEC and phishing operations worldwide. By pooling the expertise, resources, and knowledge, AFRIPOL and Group-IB aim to create a safer cyberspace in Africa.
“Group-IB’s agreement with AFRIPOL underscores our commitment to Africa and solidifies our company as a cornerstone in the region’s cybersecurity defense. We are looking forward to building upon our track record of successful collaborations with law enforcement agencies on the continent by investing in the region and expanding our presence, centered on high-quality education and offering our sector-leading incident response and digital forensics capabilities. This signifies not only our dedication, but also our confidence in the immense potential for growth in Africa,” Ashraf Koheil, Group-IB’s Regional Sales Director META, said.
