Binance partners with CICC to aid PH agencies in cybercrime prosecution

Binance Asia Pacific Head of Intelligence and Investigations, Jarek Jacubcek (center) in a cybersecurity training conducted with the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordination Center (CICC), and attended by Philippine law enforcement agencies like the PNP Anti-Cybercrime Group. The PNP contingent is led by Police Col. Armel Gongona (second from left).

MANILA, Philippines – Binance, the world’s largest blockchain ecosystem, recently partnered with the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordination Center (CICC) under the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), to share its insights and experiences in preventing cybercrime using blockchain forensics with the various law enforcement agencies.

The seminar was designed by Binance and conducted by the company’s Asia Pacific Head of Intelligence and Investigations, Jarek Jacubcek. During the two-day long seminar, Jacubcek covered the technical aspects of interactions with and between exchanges, cryptocurrency tracing, common cybercrime activities, investigative techniques, prosecution of financial crimes, and forensics report development using open-source intelligence tools.

Jacubcek, a former member of the Garda, the Irish National Police, and Europol’s Cybercrime Centre, joined the Binance team in May and is tasked to take down malicious activities in the crypto ecosystem with the help of law enforcement agencies across the region.

The seminar was also graced by the presence of CICC Usec. Alexander K. Ramos, CICC Deputy Director Mary Rose Magsaysay, and PCol. Armel Gongona, Deputy Director of Administration of the Philippine National Police (PNP) Anti-Cybercrime Group.

“We are here to increase the technical capacity of our law enforcement and to help the judicial system appreciate cryptocurrency and how it is used as digital evidence in the judicial system.  We are doing this because we need the public reassured that our law enforcement system is catching up to high tech criminals. We welcome cryptocurrency transactions so that the public may be able to use it for their economic activities’’ says Mary Rose Magsaysay, deputy executive director of CICC.

Binance on Cybersecurity

Binance has a strict KYC policy that imposes a zero-tolerance approach to double registrations, anonymous identities, and obscure sources of money. Binance’s KYC processes are compliant with AML/CFT rules in over 200 jurisdictions.

Binance does not allow users to trade on its platform without passing KYC checks that include country of residence and personal identification information. Jacubcek notes “Our primary objective over the past 18 months has been to assemble a globally recognized security and compliance team, consisting of more than 500 people from across the globe.”

At the same time, Jacubcek notes that while exchanges like Binance do its share of ensuring that their platform is secure, users also need to take responsibility and cyber hygiene seriously.

‘’Cryptocurrency give users power. All of a sudden, people have ownership of the funds. They can send funds from one person to another. But with the power comes responsibility. So, people should be very careful about their sensitive data and their cryptocurrencies when they’re making these transactions. With more education, consumers will appreciate the importance of personal data hygiene and better cybersecurity practices,” says Jacubcek.

Aside from the recent training session held in Quezon City, Binance also delivered workshops for law enforcement agencies and banking professionals in Germany (BKA, LKA, prosecutors), Canada (mixed Law Enforcement audience), Italy (Guardia di Finanza), Paraguay (prosecutors) and Brazil (Brazilian Federal Police and Prosecutors) to help facilitate investigations of cybercrimes around the world.

To protect their users, Binance has one of the world’s largest insurance funds called SAFU (secure asset fund for users) with holdings of $1 billion  held transparently in two separate wallets that are auditable by the public at any time. The funds can be used to payout to users should their accounts be subject to hacks.

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