GMV in the fight against cybercrime

During the eCrime 2015 Symposium on Electronic Crime Research, held in Barcelona, the official presentation was made of the European Chapter of the Antiphishing Working Group (APWG.eu). The congress brought together worldwide experts who are working towards increased efficiency in combatting this type of crime. Participants included the FBI, Interpol, the Spanish National Police and the Catalan Regional Policeforce, Mossos Escuadra, as well as executives of financial institutions, international researchers and major internet- and telecommunication-related companies, GMV to the fore.

GMV belongs to this new European alliance against cybercrime, which aims to bring together all the stakeholders in the fight against this new form of online crime. The project, led by CaixaBank, works from the experience built up in the United States, where the equivalent cybercrime-fighting group now has over 2000 members. Headquartered in Barcelona, all this experience is now being brought to Europe.

José María Legido, GMV’s Director of the Northwest Region Secure e-Solutions, believes that "today’s internet and telecommunications threats come from all over the world; a local response is no longer enough".

According to the figures of the Antiphishing Working Group, 2014 was a record year in phishing attempts, where criminals pretend to be a bank to take over the user’s identity and withdraw cash from his or her bank account. One such attack occurs every two minutes, adding up to 250,000 around the whole world in a single year. The same figures point to a 7% growth in the number of web domains set up for identity theft, while 549 corporations around the world suffered some sort of phishing attack.