Interpol strikes again

also ft cybersec lessons for non-digital industries

and

Mar 29, 2025

CybAfriqué is a space for news and analysis on cyber, data, and information security on the African continent.

Hi, Tunji here, super excited to be writing today’s newsletter because it’s one of those that really goes under the hood of important developments, in this case, the Interpol-enabled cybercrime crackdown wave in Africa.

Read and share, and please feel free to reply with any comments you might have!

Thanks.

— Olatunji

HIGHLIGHTS

Interpol does it again

Here’s how international crime crackdowns mostly work.:

1) Two or more countries that are affected by a central threat come together with an agreement to work together in fighting the said threat. These multilateral agreements are pretty straightforward and are central to most multinational crime crackdowns that involve specific countries or regions; they include policy frameworks that, for example, enable the USA to have a presence in drug-producing countries across the Americas. We’re not really concerned about this.

2) Through global frameworks, such as the UNODC, Interpol, the Budapest Convention, or Afripol. These are multinational organizations connecting specific agencies across countries. Interpol, for example, is a connection of some 196 police forces across the world that fights a limited list of multinational crimes, including drug trafficking, human trafficking, animal trafficking, and cybercrime.

Recently, Interpol, in collaboration with law enforcement agencies in seven African countries, arrested over 300 suspected people involved in mobile banking fraud, investment scams, and a plethora of other financially-motivated cybercrime across Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Togo and Zambia that defrauded more than 5,000 victims. This is the first of the year.

We’ve covered Interpol’s activity in Africa, especially its indispensable role in international arrests. In one of our newsletters from October 2024, we wrote in Interpol’s love affair with African cybercriminals:

By the end of 2023, Interpol had seized a total of EUR 3.35M according to publicly accessible data. This year (2024), it has aggregated financial losses of more than USD 3.4M or EUR 3.09M. Interpol’s operations in West Africa are funded mostly by the EU and UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, with intelligence support from cybersecurity firms like Group-IB.

These crackdowns have been one of the most effective on cybercrime in both Africa and across the world, especially because they effectively target entire syndicates along with the top crust of cybercriminals who enables the bottom of the pyramid. But Interpol was not enough to pull this off. To understand this, we need to remind you that Interpol functions mostly as an information-sharing network of police bodies in different countries. Interpol, by its constitution, operates with strict neutrality and respects the national sovereignty of its member states. This means it doesn't have its own police force with powers to directly investigate or arrest individuals in member countries. Cybercrime, being high-tech and borderless, requires a level of real-time, coordinated action that goes beyond simply exchanging information.

Secondly, the rapid evolution of technology and the sophistication of cybercriminals demands specialized expertise and tools that traditional policing structures do not have. Already, many of these countries enforce cybercrime mostly through another agency apart from the police, or a specialized department within the police force. For example, In Nigeria, cybercrime is mostly arrested and enforced by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), not the police. This inherently sidelines Interpol, which, again, is an amalgamation of police bodies.

Over time, Interpol has tried to fight against this with the establishment of dedicated units like the Cybercrime Directorate and the INTERPOL Global Complex for Innovation, which have been crucial to developing specific expertise and research in high-tech crimes, but this does not explain the cross-collaboration and coordinated arrests.

In 2011, Interpol signed a Memorandum of Understanding(MoU) with the African Union to fight the proliferation of drug trafficking. This MoU stretches the capacity of Interpol by giving it access to Afripol, making it easier to partner with more organizations, and keying into more tight-knit continental policies such as the Malabo convention.

In this relationship, Interpol has coordinated information sharing, access to funding, upskilling, private-public partnership (such as with Kapersky, Group-IB, and Trend Micro) and other private cybersecurity firms), and as served as a bureaucratic bully that compels corporations to act, e.g. Google or Meta might overdraw or even refuse to respond to a subpoena from an African government, but most definitely will respond to Interpol due to alignment with European authorities.

The African Joint Operation against Cybercrime (AFJOC) has also been funded mostly by the UK and European authorities, and heavily targets cybercrime that affects both continents.

This partnership cements the importance of frameworks such as the Malabo Convention, which makes it easier for any entity to partner with the continent on strengthening cybersecurity. It also provides a blueprint for fighting complex high-tech crime, especially cybercrime.

But it also reveals an unsavory truth about geopolitics and crime-fighting. We’ll leave you to answer how — or answer that in another edition, stay tuned.

Astral’s fall and cybersec lessons for non-digital industries

South Africa’s biggest chicken producer, Astral Foods, was hit by a ransomware attack on March 16, 2025, causing major delays in production and deliveries. The company says the cyberattack could cost it around R20 million ($1.1 million) in lost profits for the first half of 2025. Earnings per share may also drop by 55-60% due to the attack and other economic pressures.

This is not an isolated case. Cyberattacks on farms and food companies are rising fast. In 2023 alone, there were some 167 ransomware attacks on agriculture worldwide—up 607% since 2020. Big food companies like JBS, Dole, Sysco, and Mondelez have also been hit in recent years. In 2021, JBS paid $11 million after an attack disrupted meat production in the U.S. and Australia. In 2023, Dole shut down North American operations after a $10.5 million attack. Sysco and Mondelez have also suffered major breaches.

The agricultural sector is a main target for cybercriminals because it’s critical to supply chains, which have financial, security, and political implications for society. Farms and other traditional, digitally non-native industries are also prime targets for attacks because these industries are more likely to incorporate digital tools without attention to cybersecurity. Lastly, these attacks cause widespread disruption, breach important data, and can easily compel companies into paying ransoms.

Cybercrime is growing across all essential industries—mining, energy, and transport face similar threats. In light of this, global-north countries have industry and infrastructure-specific cybersecurity policies and Information sharing and analysis centers (ISACs).

These attacks are not widespread in Africa yet, due to high fragmentation and limited digitization in non-digital sectors, but the attack on Astral might be an early indicator to act on.

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HEADLINES

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arrested 133 suspects following a raid operation on a Ponzi Scheme Academy named Q University (a.k.a Q-Net) in Abuja, the nation’s capital.

The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) is warning cyber cafes and organizations against unauthorized printing of national identification number (NIN) cards.

In Harare, the President’s spokesperson has weighed in on the arrest of a popular podcaster over cybercrime laws, suggesting that the law under which he was arrested is too broad and may require refinement.

United Bank for Africa (UBA) lost ₦1.14 billion ($744,200) to fraud in 2024.

ACROSS THE WORLD

Authorities in Brazil have arrested and charged an individual accused of uploading more than 400 fake tracks to Spotify.

Dubai Police arrested a gang that exploited social media platforms to promote fraudulent Umrah and Hajj visas for those wishing to go to the Holy Mosque in Saudi Arabia.

Tennessee-based Numotion, which advertises itself as the largest provider of wheelchairs and other mobility solutions in the United States, has suffered a data breach impacting nearly 500,000 people.