by Michel Klompmaker

A cat in a corner makes strange jumps. But the current President of the United States made it very colourful. The whole world was able to witness this last night. Once again it appears that power politics was and is leading with Trump. Well, he will have to answer to various judges immediately after his presidency and that could turn out to be very unpleasant for him. The word “folk driver” comes up spontaneously when you study the images from yesterday. Let’s take a look at the two topics of integrity and honesty. Integrity bring a frown to all eyebrows. An attack on the independent press and on the election results if you lose turns out to be “bon ton”. And then honesty: How many thousands of scientifically controlled lies should one be able to tell and tweet? The Washington Post has meticulously mapped it all out. It will be years there for the fanatical Trump supporters to understand, should that ever happen again. Once more, proof that the combination of poor education and allowed gun possession is an extremely risky combination.

On November 25-27, the eight edition of a global threat hunting & intelligence conference CyberCrimeCon, was held online for the very first time. The conference, powered by Group-IB, a Singapore-based cybersecurity company that recently opened its European headquarters in Amsterdam, brought together more than 3,000 independent researchers and cybersecurity professionals from all around the world. The major theme of the event on the fight against evolving cybercrime now encompasses a myriad of different threats such as intelligence units’ military cyber operations, traditional cybercrime, ransomware, carding etc. Representatives of Group-IB, INTERPOL, Europol, financial and tech companies and industrial giants got together to present the latest research findings and share threat hunting and attribution tips. This article will focus on the first day of the event and to four keynote presentations given by four speakers on November 25th. Continue reading…

Battlefield evidence, such as photos depicting crimes committed against civilians, fingerprints on explosive devices and e-mails describing terrorist plots, is increasingly being used to prosecute suspects of terrorism and core international crimes, including returning Foreign Terrorist Fighters. The 2020 Memorandum on Battlefield Evidence, which was published recently by Eurojust, the EU Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation, shows that while there are many challenges in obtaining such data and making sure it meets the criteria for admissible evidence, it has paved the way for bringing terrorist suspects to trial. Continue reading…

The Financial Stability Board (FSB) recently published a letter from its Chair, Randal K. Quarles, to G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors ahead of their virtual meeting. The letter notes the extraordinary challenges for the global financial system this year. The FSB will provide a comprehensive report on the financial stability implications of, and policy responses to, the COVID Event to the November G20 Summit, including a holistic review of the market turmoil in March. The holistic review will inform future steps of the FSB in 2021 under the Italian G20 Presidency to improve the resiliency of the NBFI sector while preserving its benefits. Continue reading…

Recently, the Commission takes further steps in the Digital Decade agenda to strengthen Europe’s digital sovereignty, as announced by President Ursula von der Leyen in her State of the Union Address on Wednesday. The Commission has proposed a new Regulation for the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking to maintain and advance Europe’s leading role in supercomputing and quantum computing. It will support research and innovation activities for new supercomputing technologies, systems and products, as well as foster the necessary skills to use the infrastructure and form the basis for a world-class ecosystem in Europe. The proposal would enable an investment of €8 billion in the next generation of supercomputers – a substantially larger budget compared to the current one. Continue reading…

The European Commission recently launched a new Customs Union Action Plan setting out a series of measures to make EU customs smarter, more innovative and more efficient over the next four years. The announced measures will strengthen the Customs Union as a cornerstone of the Single Market. They also confirm its major role in protecting EU revenues and the security, health and prosperity of EU citizens and businesses. In her political guidelines, President von der Leyen announced that the Customs Union needed to be taken to the next level, in particular, by ensuring an integrated European approach to customs risk management, which supports effective controls by EU Member States. The Action Plan does just that. Continue reading…

The European Central Bank (ECB) recently published a comprehensive report on the possible issuance of a digital euro, prepared by the Eurosystem High-Level Task Force on central bank digital currency (CBDC) and approved by the Governing Council. A digital euro would be an electronic form of central bank money accessible to all citizens and firms – like banknotes, but in a digital form – to make their daily payments in a fast, easy and secure way. It would complement cash, not replace it. The Eurosystem will continue to issue cash in any case. Continue reading…

The decision by governments to close educational facilities and workplaces in a bid to stem the spread of COVID-19/Coronavirus will see many more of us than ever before remotely connecting to workplace/school networks from home and will put added strain on online resources. We will also see many people who are used to the protection offered by a corporate/education network working remotely for the first time. This coupled with opportunistic attacks from cybercriminals exploiting people’s fears over this virus outbreak could create a perfect storm for cybercriminal activity. Continue reading…

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that it has filed an emergency action and obtained a temporary restraining order and asset freeze against two individuals and two companies they control in connection with an alleged $6 million Ponzi scheme that defrauded at least 55 investors, many of whom are senior citizens or small business owners. According to the SEC’s complaint, Neil Burkholz of Boca Raton, Florida, and Frank Bianco, of Pembroke Pines, Florida, through their companies Palm Financial Management LLC and Shore Management Systems LLC, solicited investors by falsely representing that their proprietary options trading strategies were highly profitable.

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by Michel Klompmaker

On the 7th of November, the third edition of the Risk & Resilience Festival was held at the University of Twente in Enschede, which was organized by the university, the Society for Risk Management (GvRM) and Public Risk Management Organization (PRIMO). The theme surrounding this riveting event was “Risk meets Resilience for a Sustainable Future”. The overarching theme was also split into eight subthemes, which were resilience, vision & strategy, legal & compliance, technology, financial risks, human factor, operations & safety and data analytics. Around 100 speakers attended the event to share their knowledge and experiences together with about 750 people. Highlights of the event included three keynote speakers and the handing out of awards.

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