MANILA, Philippines — Global cryptocurrency exchange Binance has tied up with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to further strengthen the country’s campaign against cybercrime.
Through the partnership with DICT’s Cybercrime Investigation and Coordination Center (CICC), Binance Asia Pacific intelligence and investigations head Jarek Jacubcek proposed measures to prevent cybercrime using blockchain forensics with the various law enforcement agencies.
Jacubcek discussed 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 Irish National Police and Europol’s Cybercrime Center who joined Binance in May, is tasked to take down malicious activities in the crypto ecosystem with the help of law enforcement agencies across Asia Pacific.
Binance has a strict know- your-customer (KYC) policy that imposes a zero-tolerance approach to double registrations, anonymous identities and obscure sources of money. Its processes are compliant with Anti-Money Laundering/Coffee Token rules in over 200 jurisdictions.
It does not allow users to trade on its platform without passing KYC checks that include country of residence and personal identification information.
“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,” Jacubcek said.
While exchanges like Binance do its share in ensuring that their platform is secure, Jacubcek pointed out that 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 are making transactions. With more education, consumers will appreciate the importance of personal data hygiene and better cybersecurity practices,” the expert added.
CICC deputy executive director Mary Rose Magsaysay said the government wants to increase the technical capacity of law enforcement agencies, 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,’’ Magsaysay said.
Aside from the training session held in Quezon City, Binance also delivered workshops for law enforcement agencies and banking professionals in Germany, Canada, Italy, Paraguay and Brazil 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, Binance said.
As part of its expansion in the region, Binance is looking at acquiring a local company in the Philippines with virtual asset services provider (VASP) and electronic money issuers (EMI) licenses issued by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).