Latest news with #intelligencesharing
Arab News
24-06-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Pakistan boosts intelligence-sharing with Gulf states to curb drug trafficking
KARACHI: Pakistan and Gulf countries have intensified efforts to combat drug trafficking by enhancing intelligence-sharing, Pakistan's Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) said on Tuesday, with Oman appointing a drug liaison officer in Islamabad. The development comes months after Islamabad hosted the Pakistan-Gulf Cooperation Council (Pak-GCC) Counter-Narcotics Conference, marking the first-ever formal assembly of anti-narcotics leadership from Pakistan and all six GCC member states, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait along with special observers from Italy. For years, drug traffickers have exploited geographical and technological loopholes, using Pakistan as a transit hub and GCC nations as lucrative markets, according to the ANF. Despite ongoing efforts, the scale of smuggling seizures continues to expand, with traffickers now leveraging the dark web, cryptocurrency, and synthetic drug manufacturing to evade law enforcement agencies. 'During the conference, the Director-General of Narcotics of the Sultanate of Oman announced the appointment of drug liaison officer in Pakistan,' the ANF said in a statement. 'Acting on this decision, Mr. Suleiman Al-Hanai has been appointed as Oman's first Drug Liaison Officer in Pakistan who has assumed his official responsibilities in Islamabad.' The announcement signals a new phase in relations between the two countries as they align their efforts in the global war on drugs, according to the ANF. The appointment reflects a shared commitment by Pakistan and Oman to safeguard their societies and promote a drug-free environment across the Gulf and South Asian regions. In recent years, the ANF has successfully intercepted tones of illicit drugs, dismantled trafficking rings through road, border, dry port, airport and sea routes, and strengthened global relationships. With its advanced intelligence capabilities and strategic operations, the ANF has intensified collaboration with GCC security agencies, ensuring that traffickers find no safe passage between these regions. In June 2024, the ANF also stepped up its international cooperation against drug trafficking through a workshop backed by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, uniting national, regional and global agencies to strengthen data-sharing and coordination.
The Guardian
13-06-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Canada and India to share terrorism intelligence despite 2023 murder plot, says report
Canada and India plan to share intelligence in a bid to combat the rising threat of international crime and extremism, according to a new report from Bloomberg, days before a meeting between the two countries' leaders. Canadian officials declined to comment on the report, which, if confirmed, would represent a dramatic shift in relations between the two nations which for nearly two years have been locked in a bitter diplomatic spat after Canada's federal police agency concluded that India planned and ordered the murder a prominent Sikh activist on Canadian soil. Under the intelligence-sharing deal , which is expected to be announced during the G7 summit in Canada later this week, police from both countries will increase cooperation on transnational crime, terrorism and extremist activities. Canada has reportedly pushed for more work on investigations into extrajudicial killings. Earlier this month, Canada's prime minister, Mark Carney, was forced to defend his decision to invite the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, to the G7 summit in Alberta after Canada's federal police's said the shooting death of Hardeep Singh Nijjar was orchestrated by the 'highest levels' of the Indian government. Carney said there was a 'legal process that is literally under way and quite advanced in Canada', following questions over his decision to invite Modi. Four Indian nationals living in Canada have been charged with Nijjar's murder. Carney also cited India's status as the 'fifth largest economy in the world, the most populous country in the world and central to supply chains'. But the decision did not sit well with lawmakers from British Columbia. A member of Carney's Liberal caucus, Sukh Dhaliwal, met with the prime minister earlier this the week to express concern over the invitation. 'We as Canadians take pride to be a champion on human rights. We are the country of law and justice,' Dhaliwal, who represents the electoral district where Nijjar was killed, told the Canadian Press. 'When it comes to protecting fundamental rights and serving justice for the victim, it is non-negotiable.' Dhaliwal said that the prime minister was 'alarmed about the issue' and would be 'very strong in dealing' with the issue when speaking to his Indian counterpart. Ever since former prime minister Justin Trudeau accused India of orchestrating the high-profile assassination of Nijjar, Ottawa and New Delhi have been locked in an worsening feud over the issue. India temporarily stopped issuing in visas in Canada and, soon after, Canada expelled six senior diplomats, including the high commissioner, Sanjay Verma. India retaliated by ordering the expulsion of six high-ranking Canadian diplomats, including the acting high commissioner. 'The Indian government made a horrific mistake in thinking that they could interfere as aggressively as they did in the safety and sovereignty of Canada,' Trudeau told a public inquiry into foreign interference, adding that Canada had not wanted to 'blow up' its valuable relationship with India. But he said after Nijjar was killed, 'we had clear and certainly now ever clearer indications that India had violated Canada's sovereignty'. The Bloomberg report, which underscores Carney's attempts to mend relations with powerful nations, follows revelations that a suspected Indian government agent was surveilling former New Democratic party leader Jagmeet Singh as part of its network of coercion and intimidation. According to Global News, the person, with suspected ties to both the Indian government and the Lawrence Bishnoi gang implicated in Nijjar's death, knew Singh's daily routines, travel plans and family. When the RCMP realized there was a credible thread to this life, they placed the federal party leader under police protection. 'India targeted a Canadian politician on Canadian soil. That's absolutely unprecedented. 'As far as we're concerned, that's an act of war,' Balpreet Singh, a spokesperson for the World Sikh Organization, said after of the Global News report. 'If Jagmeet Singh isn't safe … what does it mean for the rest of us?'
Finextra
05-06-2025
- Business
- Finextra
We Fight Fraud adopts Salv Bridge to share real-time scam intelligence with banks
We Fight Fraud (WFF), a specialist financial and cyber crime consultancy, has selected European Regtech scale-up Salv to share intelligence with financial institutions across Europe. 0 We Fight Fraud regularly carries out research that reconstructs the tactics used by criminals to commit financial scams. These initiatives aim to uncover vulnerabilities so banks and fintechs can better protect their customers. During these exercises, WFF discovers fraudulent and money mule accounts. Until now, they've lacked a fast, secure way to share this intelligence. Using Salv Bridge, We Fight Fraud can now deliver that intelligence instantly through a compliant, secure, and structured messaging platform purpose-built for collaborative financial crime investigations. Over 100 banks, fintechs and PSPs across Europe use Salv Bridge to share intelligence for authorised push payment (APP) fraud recovery, collaborative AML investigations, automated RFIs, and suspicious IBANs. Alerts exchanged through Salv Bridge have a true positive rate of over 90%, and companies see recovery rates of stolen funds as high as 80% 'Speed is everything when we uncover criminal accounts or active scams,' said Dr. Nicola Harding, CEO at We Fight Fraud. 'Salv Bridge gives us an easy way to share vital signals in the moment. It means our insights reach the right hands faster, enabling quicker interventions and stronger protection for customers. That's the difference we're here to make.' 'Intelligence sharing is no longer a theory. It's happening,' said Taavi Tamkivi, Co-founder and CEO at Salv. 'Hundreds of financial institutions and national associations are now taking it seriously. Any party that uncovers vital crime signals needs a fast, secure way to share them across borders and sectors. Salv Bridge is that channel. Built to the highest privacy and security standards, organisations can finally move faster than the criminals.'
Zawya
04-06-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Microsoft offers to boost European governments' cybersecurity for free
Microsoft is offering free of charge to European governments a cybersecurity programme, launched on Wednesday, to bolster their defences against cyber threats, including those enhanced by artificial intelligence, it said. After a surge in cyberattacks in Europe, many linked to state-sponsored actors from China, Iran, North Korea and Russia, the programme aims to boost intelligence-sharing on AI-based threats and help to prevent and disrupt attacks. "If we can bring more to Europe of what we have developed in the United States, that will strengthen cybersecurity protection for more European institutions," Microsoft President Brad Smith told Reuters in an interview. "You're going to see other things we are doing later in the month." Increasingly, attackers employ generative AI to amplify the scale and impact of their operations that range from disrupting critical infrastructure to spreading disinformation. Although malicious actors have weaponised AI, Smith said AI also offered defensive tools. "We don't feel that we have seen AI that has evaded our ability to detect the use of AI or the threats more broadly," Smith said. "Our goal needs to be to keep AI advancing as a defensive tool faster than it advances as an offensive weapon," he said. Microsoft tracks any malicious use of AI models it releases and prevents known cybercriminals from using its AI products. AI-driven deepfakes have included a portrayal of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy capitulating to Russian demands in 2022 and a fake audio recording in 2023 that influenced the Slovakian election. Smith said so far audio had been easier to fake than video. (Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm; editing by Barbara Lewis)
