DHAKA: A new round of violence in Bangladesh has left more than 20 people dead and hundreds injured as student protesters clashed with police and ruling party activists on Sunday, officials and media reports said.
The demonstrators were demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina after earlier protests in July that began with students calling for an end to a quota system for government jobs escalated into violence that left more than 200 dead.
Authorities in response closed schools and universities across the country, blocked Internet access and imposed a shoot-on-sight curfew. At least 11,000 people have been arrested in recent weeks.
Protesters called for “non-cooperation,” urging people not to pay taxes and utility bills and not show up for work on Sunday, a working day in Bangladesh. Offices, banks and factories opened, but commuters in Dhaka and other cities faced challenges getting to work.
The protesters attacked Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, a major public hospital in Dhaka’s Shahbagh area, torching several vehicles.
In Dhaka’s Uttara neighborhood, police fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of people who blocked a major highway. Protesters attacked homes and vandalized a community welfare office in the area, where hundreds of ruling party activists took up positions. Some crude bombs were detonated and gunshots were heard, witnesses said.
Abu Hena, a hospital official in Munshiganj district near Dhaka, said two people were declared dead after being rushed to a hospital with injuries.
Jamuna TV station reported another 21 deaths in 11 districts including in Bogura, Magura, Rangpur and Sirajganj districts, where the protesters backed by the country’s main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party clashed with police and the activists of the ruling Awami League party and its associated bodies.
The country’s leading Bengali-language Prothom Alo daily said at least 18 people died in Sunday’s violence, but more reports of violence were coming. Channel 24 TV station reported at least 21 deaths.
Users complained of disruptions in mobile Internet service on Sunday afternoon and many others faced problems accessing Facebook.
The protests began last month as students demanded an end to a quota system that reserved 30 percent of government jobs for the families of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s war of independence against Pakistan in 1971. As violence crested, the country’s Supreme Court scaled back the quota system to 5 percent of jobs, with 3 percent for relatives of veterans, but protests have continued demanding accountability for violence the demonstrators blame on the government’s use of excessive force.
The quota system also includes quotas members of ethnic minorities, and disabled and transgender people, which were cut from 26 percent to 2 percent in the ruling.
Hasina’s administration has blamed the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and now-banned right-wing Jamaat-e-Islami party and their student wings for instigating violence, in which several state-owned establishments were also torched or vandalized.
Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, secretary-general of the main opposition party, repeated a call for the government to step down to stop the chaos.
Hasina offered to talk with student leaders on Saturday, but a coordinator refused and announced a one-point demand for her resignation.
Hasina repeated her pledges to thoroughly investigate the deaths and punish those responsible for the violence. She said that her doors were open for talks and she was ready to sit down whenever the protesters want.
The protests have become a major challenge for Hasina, who has ruled the country for over 15 years, returning to power for a fourth consecutive term in January in an election that was boycotted by her main opponents.
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Violence in Bangladesh leaves many people dead, hundreds injured as protests continue
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Violence in Bangladesh leaves many people dead, hundreds injured as protests continue
- Demonstrators demand resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina over July protests that killed over 200
- At least 11,000 people have been arrested in recent weeks across the country in student-led protests
Interpol backroom warriors fight cyber criminals ‘weaponizing’ AI
SINGAPORE: From perfectly spelled phishing emails to fake videos of government officials, artificial intelligence is changing the game for Interpol’s cat-and-mouse fight against cybercrime at its high-tech war rooms in Singapore.
Their foe: crime syndicates, structured like multinational firms, which are exploiting the fast-evolving technology to target individuals, states and corporations for billions of dollars.
“I consider the weaponization of AI by cybercriminals... as the biggest threat we’re seeing,” Neal Jetton, Interpol’s Singapore-based director of cybercrime, told AFP.
“They are using it in whatever way they can,” added Jetton, who is seconded to Interpol from the US Secret Service, the federal agency in charge of presidential protection.
AFP was granted a look inside the global organization’s multi-pronged cybercrime facility, where specialists pore through massive amounts of data in a bid to prevent the next big ransomware attack or impersonation scam.
Jetton said the “sheer volume” of cyberattacks worries him the most.
“It’s going to only expand, and so you just need to get the word out to people,” so they understand “how often they’re going to be targeted,” he said.
AI technology is allowing criminals around the world to create sophisticated voice and video copies of well-known figures to endorse scam investments, and helping make dodgy online messages appear more genuine.
Jetton warned that even low-skilled criminals can purchase ready-made hacking and scamming tools on the dark web — and anyone with a smartphone can be a target.
- ‘Black market’ -
The facility is part of the Interpol Global Complex for Innovation, not far from the Singapore Botanic Gardens.
It is the organization’s second headquarters after Lyon in France, and houses the Cyber Fusion Center, a nerve center for sharing intelligence of online threats among 196 members.
Another office in the complex studies emerging online threats, while a digital forensics lab extracts and analyzes data from electronic devices like laptops, phones and even cars.
A command-and-coordination center, like a mini space mission control with staff facing big screens, monitors global developments in real time during Asian hours.
Intelligence analysts scrutinize millions of data points — from web addresses and malware variants to hacker code names — that could provide leads in active investigations.
Christian Heggen, coordinator of the Cyber Intelligence Unit, said they are up against a “large ecosystem of cyber criminals” who use “a number of different attack vectors.”
“They get quite creative. It’s a whole black market of spying and selling stolen data, buying and selling malware. We have to understand that ecosystem,” he said.
To strengthen its capabilities, Interpol partners with private firms in finance, cybersecurity and cryptocurrency analysis.
“It’s always a cat-and-mouse game, always continually developing. That’s why a department like this is quite important, because we can provide the latest intelligence and information,” Heggen said.
- ‘AI has no soul’ -
Last year, Interpol’s cybercrime directorate coordinated “Operation Secure” in Asia, which saw 26 countries work together to dismantle more than 20,000 malicious IP addresses and domains linked to syndicates to steal data.
Another anti-cybercrime operation across Africa, called “Operation Serengeti 2.0” coordinated from Singapore, saw authorities arrest 1,209 cybercriminals who targeted nearly 88,000 victims. More than $97 million was recovered and 11,432 malicious infrastructures were dismantled.
Jetton said Interpol supported the crackdown on the online scam centers in Southeast Asia through intelligence-sharing and resource development.
The Innovation Center’s head, Toshinobu Yasuhira, a Japanese officer seconded from the National Police Agency, said advances in deepfake technology have become a growing concern, but one of his deeper worries lies ahead: AI acting beyond human control.
“Should we arrest people who program the AI, or who utilize AI, or should we arrest the AI itself?” he said in an interview.
“It’s kind of very difficult because AI doesn’t have any soul, heart.”
Paulo Noronha, a digital forensics expert from Brazil’s Federal Police, demonstrated some of the lab’s high-tech tools designed to keep investigators a step ahead.
Experts at the lab are working on the further use of virtual reality, augmented reality and quantum technology against cybercriminals.
“It’s up to us to stay ahead of criminals,” he said. “That’s why we have systems like these.”
For Jetton and his colleagues, the fight rarely enters the public eye, but is vital to global security.
“We try to be as confidential as we can,” one intelligence analyst said.
“We’re providing key support for operations and investigations around the world.”
Their foe: crime syndicates, structured like multinational firms, which are exploiting the fast-evolving technology to target individuals, states and corporations for billions of dollars.
“I consider the weaponization of AI by cybercriminals... as the biggest threat we’re seeing,” Neal Jetton, Interpol’s Singapore-based director of cybercrime, told AFP.
“They are using it in whatever way they can,” added Jetton, who is seconded to Interpol from the US Secret Service, the federal agency in charge of presidential protection.
AFP was granted a look inside the global organization’s multi-pronged cybercrime facility, where specialists pore through massive amounts of data in a bid to prevent the next big ransomware attack or impersonation scam.
Jetton said the “sheer volume” of cyberattacks worries him the most.
“It’s going to only expand, and so you just need to get the word out to people,” so they understand “how often they’re going to be targeted,” he said.
AI technology is allowing criminals around the world to create sophisticated voice and video copies of well-known figures to endorse scam investments, and helping make dodgy online messages appear more genuine.
Jetton warned that even low-skilled criminals can purchase ready-made hacking and scamming tools on the dark web — and anyone with a smartphone can be a target.
- ‘Black market’ -
The facility is part of the Interpol Global Complex for Innovation, not far from the Singapore Botanic Gardens.
It is the organization’s second headquarters after Lyon in France, and houses the Cyber Fusion Center, a nerve center for sharing intelligence of online threats among 196 members.
Another office in the complex studies emerging online threats, while a digital forensics lab extracts and analyzes data from electronic devices like laptops, phones and even cars.
A command-and-coordination center, like a mini space mission control with staff facing big screens, monitors global developments in real time during Asian hours.
Intelligence analysts scrutinize millions of data points — from web addresses and malware variants to hacker code names — that could provide leads in active investigations.
Christian Heggen, coordinator of the Cyber Intelligence Unit, said they are up against a “large ecosystem of cyber criminals” who use “a number of different attack vectors.”
“They get quite creative. It’s a whole black market of spying and selling stolen data, buying and selling malware. We have to understand that ecosystem,” he said.
To strengthen its capabilities, Interpol partners with private firms in finance, cybersecurity and cryptocurrency analysis.
“It’s always a cat-and-mouse game, always continually developing. That’s why a department like this is quite important, because we can provide the latest intelligence and information,” Heggen said.
- ‘AI has no soul’ -
Last year, Interpol’s cybercrime directorate coordinated “Operation Secure” in Asia, which saw 26 countries work together to dismantle more than 20,000 malicious IP addresses and domains linked to syndicates to steal data.
Another anti-cybercrime operation across Africa, called “Operation Serengeti 2.0” coordinated from Singapore, saw authorities arrest 1,209 cybercriminals who targeted nearly 88,000 victims. More than $97 million was recovered and 11,432 malicious infrastructures were dismantled.
Jetton said Interpol supported the crackdown on the online scam centers in Southeast Asia through intelligence-sharing and resource development.
The Innovation Center’s head, Toshinobu Yasuhira, a Japanese officer seconded from the National Police Agency, said advances in deepfake technology have become a growing concern, but one of his deeper worries lies ahead: AI acting beyond human control.
“Should we arrest people who program the AI, or who utilize AI, or should we arrest the AI itself?” he said in an interview.
“It’s kind of very difficult because AI doesn’t have any soul, heart.”
Paulo Noronha, a digital forensics expert from Brazil’s Federal Police, demonstrated some of the lab’s high-tech tools designed to keep investigators a step ahead.
Experts at the lab are working on the further use of virtual reality, augmented reality and quantum technology against cybercriminals.
“It’s up to us to stay ahead of criminals,” he said. “That’s why we have systems like these.”
For Jetton and his colleagues, the fight rarely enters the public eye, but is vital to global security.
“We try to be as confidential as we can,” one intelligence analyst said.
“We’re providing key support for operations and investigations around the world.”
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