Microsoft believes Asia is the hub of cybercrime with countries like China and India as well as ocean countries of Australia and New Zealand providing working space for cyber criminals. Microsoft already had two cybercrime satellites in Asia – in China and in Japan from where they were monitoring hacks and malware distribution as well as piracy. Now they have come up with a third in the same locality – Asia Pacific – by opening another cybercrime center in Singapore.
The other two cybercrime centers are located in Washington DC and Berlin. With three cybercrime centers in Asia and Asia Pacific region, Microsoft has aims to strengthen its noose on cyber criminals engaged mostly in piracy of products, distribution of malware and counterfeiting software as well as placing a check on hackers. It says that the presence of Interpol office in Singapore will help Microsoft act swiftly in cases of cybercrime.
According to Microsoft, Singapore is one of the major financial centers in the world. A lot of the money comes from Singapore and criminals follow money. They are in the business of stealing, says Microsoft. The main aim of the cybercrime satellite is to keep an eye on how the cybercriminals are using their operating systems as base for distribution of malware and counterfeiting software – not only the software that runs on Windows but also the Windows operating systems itself.
India, Australia and New Zealand can be observed easily from the Singapore satellite of Microsoft Anti Cybercrime Cell. Singapore’s laws are good so they can easily press charges and continue with cases even if the criminals do not cooperate with the company. Microsoft states the incident of taking down one of the biggest threat in form of malware – the Rustock – that had infected millions of Windows computers. The charges were pressed and servers seized even though the criminals refused to be present in the courts. Similar legal facilities are available in Singapore and hence it is an ideal spot for investigating and stopping cybercrime.
All of these satellite centers report to Cybercrime center located in Redmond and function in collaboration with the main office. One of the personnel working with Microsoft Cybercrime department, Bosco, said that there is a lot going on in China. Criminals in China not only sell pirated software but also infections. He added that he had found computers preloaded with malware and in some cases, the essential features were already turned off such as Windows Defender and Windows Updates so that it becomes easier for criminals to hack such computers.
He stressed on the point that the presence of Interpol in Singapore is a huge boost for the anti-cybercrime activities that Microsoft’s Singapore Anti Cybercrime center aims to deal with.
