The International Criminal Police Organisation, INTERPOL, has expressed readiness to tackle cybercrime, popularly known as Yahoo-Yahoo scammers, in about forty-nine African countries.
EveryEvery.ng gathered that INTERPOL is creating a new cybercrime operations desk with UK funding to boost the capacity of African countries to fight cybercrime.
According to the agency, the Africa desk will help shape a regional strategy to drive intelligence-led coordinated actions against cybercriminals in the African continent.
During the CYBERUK conference in London, Dominic Raab, UK Foreign Secretary, said the country is working with like-minded partners to ensure that the international order that governs cyber activity is fit for its purpose.
Dominic further revealed that the UK aims to create cyberspace that is free, open and secure, for the benefit of all nations and people.
He opined that the UK’s support for INTERPOL’s cyber initiative in Africa underlines its commitment to the fight against cybercrime, adding that it would be an essential piece of the global security architecture to combat cybercrime.
Meanwhile, INTERPOL’s Secretary-General, Jürgen Stock, said, more than half of more than 4.5 billion people online is at risk of falling victim to cybercrime at any time.
Stock revealed that the project would allow regular pulse checks on Cybercrime in Africa and publish annual threat landscape assessments that will underpin operational activities.
A 2017 assessment coordinated by INTERPOL with partners and member countries in Africa found that each act of Internet fraud targets to steal an average of USD 2.7 million from companies and USD 422,000 from individuals.