LACNIC Working Closer with Law Enforcement Agencies to Strengthen the Global Fight Against Cybercrime

30/04/2019

LACNIC is strengthening its relationship with law enforcement agencies (LEAs) after participating in a second meeting held in Barbados with representatives of the five Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) and government security teams, the FBI, the CIA and organizations of the Caribbean region working on cybersecurity and the prosecution of potential cybercriminals.

Summoned by ARIN and supported by the other four RIRs (LACNIC, RIPE, AFRINIC and APNIC) as well as by ICANN, the meeting held in Barbados brought to the table more than 30 relevant actors representing the entire Internet ecosystem and the authorities having jurisdiction over public security for the purpose of finding potential ways to cooperate in the fight against cybercrime.

Kevon Swift, Head of Strategic Relations and Integration at LACNIC, participated in the meeting where ideas were analyzed for identifying points of contact throughout the Caribbean, developing closer ties and coordinating work on cybersecurity issues.

Reports on how the changing technological landscape is affecting law enforcement organizations, current trends in cybersecurity and the practical steps needed to effectively respond to threats and opportunities were discussed during the meeting.

Swift noted that the RIRs took advantage of the opportunity to explain how RIRs operate, how they verify their information, how the DNS works, and secure IP address routing.

Participants also discussed different approaches to inter-institutional collaboration and how RIRs can contribute to the investigation of potential security incidents and cybersecurity incident response.

The meeting also allowed assessing how regional organizations and entities have prepared to respond and defend themselves against cybercriminals. Participants agreed on the difficulties in prosecuting alleged online criminals because of a lack of proper legal frameworks and up-to-date cooperation systems to address this type of crime between the different countries.

After an open debate, the LEAs expressed their interest in the work of LACNIC WARP, more specifically its operation and statistics, the type of incidents that are reported, and the origin of such incidents according to their IP addresses.

Following this successful meeting with LEAs and given the relevance of cybersecurity incidents in the Americas, LACNIC is planning a follow-up meeting in Panama in the month of October. In addition, a FIRST Symposium will take place during the LACNIC 31 event to be held in Punta Cana. The goal of this activity is to promote cooperation and coordination among computer security professionals to improve security incident prevention.