Microsoft has announced the opening of a cyber crime centre at its headquarters in Redmond, Washington.
Combining Microsoft’s legal and technical expertise as well as cutting-edge tools and technology with cross-industry expertise, it said that the work done at the Cybercrime Center will help ensure that people worldwide can use their computing devices and services with confidence.
It will be supported by 12 satellite offices or regional labs around the world in Beijing; Berlin; Bogota; Brussels; Dublin; Edinboro, Pennsylvania; Gurgaon; Hong Kong; Munich; Singapore; Sydney; and Washington D.C.
In these and the main centre, Microsoft’s team and technologies will visualise and identify global cyber threats which are developing in real time; this will include the SitePrint technology, which allows the mapping of online organised crime networks; PhotoDNA, a leading anti-child pornography technology; cyber forensics, a new investigative capability that detects global cyber crime, including online fraud and identity theft; and cyber threat intelligence from Microsoft’s botnet takedown operations.
A separate and secure location for third-party partners, allowing cyber security experts from around the world to work in the facility with Microsoft’s experts for an indefinite period of time, is also offered.
David Finn, associate general counsel of the Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit, said: “The Microsoft Cybercrime Center is where our experts come together with customers and partners to focus on one thing: keeping people safe online. By combining sophisticated tools and technology with the right skills and new perspectives, we can make the internet safer for everyone.”
Noboru Nakatani, executive director of the INTERPOL Global Complex for Innovation called the Microsoft Cybercrime Center “an important hub in accomplishing that task more effectively and proactively”.
“The security community needs to build on its coordinated responses to keep pace with today’s cyber criminals,” he said.
