Finally, Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy expands and deepens regional partnerships (Objective 5). Canada will seek to reinforce its influence among partners and allies in the region, offering more diplomatic, economic, military and technical support and cooperation, and answering the call from regional partners for deeper engagement. The rise of the Indo-Pacific and the profound impacts the region will have on the lives of all Canadians demand a comprehensive, whole-of-society strategy to guide Canada’s actions. How Canada engages in the region will set the pace for the future and prosperity of our economy, security and stability.
The Role of the Dark Web in the Crime and Terrorism Nexus
We can offer your organization the insights and assistance required to establish, design, and execute your cybersecurity program roadmap. Our approach is aligned with leading industry standards and tailored to your specific risk tolerance, legal obligations, and regulatory compliance needs. For a deeper dive into the specific trends and data points discussed, the 2024 Crypto Crime Report provides extensive analysis and insights. The future of darknet markets is uncertain, but understanding the current landscape and emerging trends is crucial for anyone involved in or combating these underground economies. The landscape of darkweb markets is dynamic, influenced by technological, economic, and regulatory factors.
Scams and Fraud: Shifting Tactics
Notably, First Nation reserves are being infiltrated by outlaw motorcycle gangs and organized crime groups who leverage these communities’ remoteness and lack of law enforcement resources to carry out criminal activity. As a result, in addition to drug trafficking, many communities have experienced a rise in property crime, violence, domestic abuse, human trafficking and elder abuse. In some cases, communities have experienced the trafficking of prescription and illegal drugs by community members and the genesis of Aboriginal-based organized crime groups.
- 2023 was a year of recovery for the cryptocurrency industry, bouncing back from the chaos of 2022.
- South Asia’s glaciers are melting, and many of the smaller Pacific Island Countries are facing catastrophic rises in sea levels.
- Progressive organizations develop strategic foresight capabilities to strengthen strategic planning, innovation initiatives, and operations.
- We at futurist.local have always offered free information to the public, written by Glen and guest writers, while also acting as a marketing tool for his futurist business of consulting, research, and keynote speaking.
- Since then, airports around the world have grappled with long security and customs queues amid staffing shortages and a massive travel rebound.
- As Canada takes historic climate action at home, it is clear that progress in tackling emissions also requires the full engagement of our Indo-Pacific partners.
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These groups include traditional organized crime syndicates, outlaw motorcycle gangs and street gangs; they typically trade in diverse illegal markets and traffic a variety of substances. OCGs transport drugs using both established and novel trafficking routes and work cooperatively within the Prairies as well as into neighbouring British Columbia and Ontario. These criminal enterprises often operate inter-provincially and/or transnationally and use technological advances and knowledge of investigative strategies revealed through prosecution processes to adapt their practices. Law enforcement noted that intelligence and information sharing are key to targeting these criminal organizations. The Indo-Pacific is rapidly becoming the global centre of economic dynamism and strategic challenge. Our ability to maintain open skies, open trading systems and open societies, as well as to effectively address climate change, will depend in part on what happens over the next several decades in the Indo-Pacific region.
Job and employment scams
Scammers can tell such genuine sounding stories that you could be tricked into providing personal documents and bank account details so that you can confirm their identity and claim your inheritance. The “inheritance” is likely to be non‑existent and, as well as losing any money you might have paid to the scammer in fees and taxes, you could also risk having your identity stolen. Ponzi schemes are fraudulent investment operations that work in a similar way to pyramid schemes.
Transformative Tech: Beyond Landmines to Global Impact
The prevalence of meth across the Prairies, coupled with the ongoing threat from opioids, has not only led to community safety concerns, but has also significantly taxed law enforcement resources. Despite these challenges, a number of law enforcement-driven initiatives have been undertaken to counter the illegal drug trade and organized criminal activity. Such initiatives include Project Riverbank, a multi-jurisdictional investigation that successfully intercepted large quantities of drugs, vehicles, weapons and cash from across the Prairies and into British Columbia. In Calgary, operation Daylight Initiative was introduced to reduce the supply and availability of meth, increase intelligence on its production and distribution and provide public awareness of its dangers.
Dispute over unrecognized Inuit group halts major conference for Canadian North
Emergency scams target grandparents and play upon their emotions to rob them of their money. The Nigerian scam (also called the 419 fraud) has been on the rise since the early‑to‑mid 1990s in Canada. Although many of these sorts of scams originated in Nigeria, similar scams have been started all over the world (particularly in other parts of West Africa and in Asia). Pyramid schemes promise a large financial return for a relatively small cost.
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The Bing search engine has developed a pilot project in the United States to display warnings directly in its results for websites identified by the FDA and/or NABP as operating illegally. NABP has partnered with the (Canadian) National Association of Pharmacy Regulatory Authorities and the Alliance for Safe Online Pharmacies – Canada to enhance the safety of Canadian consumers. Given the potential harm that illegitimate pharmacy sites can cause, it is essential to educate the public and raise awareness of accessing safe online pharmacies. The anonymous nature and sophistication of both the surface and dark web sites has paved the way for a modernized landscape for drug trafficking. In conjunction with the protection afforded by the web through protected websites.
Section: B: National Treatment and Market Access for Goods
- It is made up of profit-driven cybercriminals who leverage different TTPs, and operate in regional networks across the globe.
- Canada is committed to fighting climate change and ensuring a sustainable and green future (Objective 4) for people from the Indo-Pacific and for Canadians.
- The report emphasizes the role of darknet markets in facilitating various illicit activities, from drug trafficking to the sale of stolen data.
- Although hacking onto the Tor network is very difficult, the browser is not necessarily secure and is still exploitable as your traffic can still be monitored.
- In the typical scenario of an emergency scam, a grandparent receives a phone call from a scammer claiming to be one of his or her grandchildren.
- His ongoing counsel and collaborative methods create the ability for executives to more deeply consider our futures and bring incredible value to their organizations.
- However, they do not offer any real secrecy by themselves because the technology they rely on keeps a record of all transactions.
- For instance, participants heard that opioid-related mortality rates among some First Nations communities, specifically in British Columbia’s Coastal Salish Territory, continued to increase in 2018 despite a decreasing trend among the province’s non-Indigenous population.
In its early days, cybercrime was a largely informal, recreational cottage industry.Footnote 3 The turn of the millennium brought the introduction of online forums that facilitated the exchange of information and acted as marketplaces. This was the effective birth of the true cybercrime market and the increasingly professional industry that followed. The key judgments in this assessment rely on reporting from multiple sources, both classified and unclassified.
Research and apply resiliency signals and trends
If you sent money through a wire service (such as Western Union or Money Gram), contact the wire service immediately. If the scammer hasn’t already cashed your cheque, they may be able to cancel it. If you sent money through an electronic funds transfer (over the Internet), contact your financial institution immediately. If they have not already processed the transfer, they may be able to cancel it. Although it may be hard to recover any money that you have lost to a scam, there are steps you can take to reduce the damage and avoid becoming a target for a follow‑up scam.
Baseline cyber threat assessment: Cybercrime
Those who return home forever carry with them the knowledge and experiences gained in Canada. The North Pacific faces growing security challenges, notably from North Korea, as its increasingly frequent and reckless testing of missiles demonstrates. Since the Korean War, when 516 Canadians made the ultimate sacrifice, Canada has never left the Korean Peninsula; rather, it has continuously served, through the UN Command, in support of peace on the peninsula. Today, that includes sustained and persistent deployments of Canadian Armed Forces planes and frigates that monitor activities that are in violation of UN sanctions, and which are aimed to deter nuclear proliferation.
However, any transactions technically part of the sharing economy which occur offline with cash exchanging hands could still evade taxation. One aspect of the shadow economy as a whole is the difficulty in discovering and measuring its activities. Delineating each activity can be difficult, but doing so is becoming increasingly critical. While the underground economy stunts the formal economy during bullish times, it can also support the formal economy during recessions. We are not connected with Markets or any other darknet websites mentioned.
We further assess that both Russian and Iranian state-sponsored cyber threat actors will use ransomware to obfuscate the origins or intentions of their cyber operations. Certain forums have also been developed to specialize not only by subject, but also by language. A key factor of these forums is that they provide a “safe space” to discuss ideas, share information, and coordinate attacks. The “2024 Crypto Crime Report” provides a comprehensive overview of the evolving landscape of cryptocurrency crime. From the rise of ransomware and darknet markets to the changing tactics of scammers and the persistent challenge of money laundering, the report underscores the need for continued vigilance and innovation in combating crypto crime.
- Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy has implications for all Canadians, and it leverages the efforts of non-governmental organizations, non-profit groups, the private sector, universities and colleges, Indigenous Peoples and Canadian workers.
- Stability in this region directly impacts the safety, prosperity and security of Canadians.
- In 2019, this approach led to 479 intelligence-based inspections resulting in the confiscation of 3,236 kg of illegal substances, in addition to the termination of 101 illegal accounts and the inspection of 906 items in targeted Northern communities.
- The more quickly you act, the greater your chance of reducing your losses.
- And China’s economy offers significant opportunities for Canadian exporters.
- Each Party shall grant duty-free temporary admission for containers and pallets regardless of their origin, that are in use or to be used in the shipment of goods in international traffic.
Postal Inspection Service is the primary law enforcement, crime prevention and security arm of the U.S. Central to the USPIS’ efforts in combatting illicit drugs and firearms is the Contraband Interdiction and Investigations Group (CI2), whose mission is to protect postal employees, the American public and U.S. mail from dangerous and illegal contraband. CI2 employs agency strategies to enhance drug interdictions by conducting investigations and seizing illegal substances transported through the mail system.
See the trends and exponential technologies are helping change our relationship with these foundations of society
By reporting the scam to authorities, they may be able to warn other people about the scam and minimize the chances of the scam spreading further. You should also warn your friends and family of any scams that you come across. Details on how to report a scam are provided at the end of this publication. Another common approach used by scammers is to call a firm asking to confirm details of an advertisement that they claim has already been booked.
Reporting fraud, theft and other crimes
Similar issues are arising with the Internet of ThingsFootnote 3 and 3D printing which are bringing the digital into the real world. Terrorism is a far cry from unreported income for babysitting, but it is still part of the shadow economy – the black market/illegal sector. Afghan terrorists are infamous for using the sale of opium to fund their activities, and terrorists have been shown to meet in the same circles as other types of black market criminals. Indeed, activities performed within the shadow economy could conceivably support terrorist activities.
To better illustrate the scope and importance of the problem, it is sufficient to mention that over 21 million of corporate accounts belonging to Fortune 500 companies were breached and put for sale in dark web back in 2019! The landscape of darkweb markets has evolved significantly over the years, with 2024 presenting new trends, challenges, and opportunities for those involved in these underground economies. This article delves into the current state of darkweb markets, backed by statistics, comparisons, and predictions for the years 2024 and 2025. When it came time to pay, I was presented with a big plus sign and a big minus sign.“Tip is set to zero,” a loud voice said. It’s not necessary,” said Len Saunders, an immigration lawyer based in Blaine, Wash., just south of Vancouver.
For greater certainty, paragraph 1 applies to the importation of commercial cryptographic goods. Ad hoc discussions under this Article shall be confidential and without prejudice to the rights of any Party, including being without prejudice to rights pertaining to dispute settlement proceedings under Chapter 28 (Dispute Settlement). Within 30 days of receipt of a request under paragraph 2, the requested Party shall provide a written reply to the requesting Party. Within 30 days of the requesting Party’s receipt of the reply, the requesting and requested Parties (the discussing Parties) shall meet in person or via electronic means to discuss the matter identified in the request. If the discussing Parties choose to meet in person, the meeting shall take place in the territory of the requested Party, unless the discussing Parties decide otherwise. Each Party shall permit a good temporarily admitted under this Article to be exported through a customs port other than the port through which it was admitted.
Bartering is another type of activity undertaken under the informal sector, and has been made more popular and wide-spread by the sharing economy and the internet. “The current fee, set over 20 years ago, no longer covers the cost of the nexus market link program,” the CBSA news release said. “The new fee would reflect more accurately the cost of administrating the program and the investment required for future program improvements, including technology and infrastructure enhancements.”
Canada, with shoreline spanning three oceans, is committed to a “blue economy” and has much to share with partners in the region. Canada has significant expertise in underwater mapping and in monitoring oceans through advanced sensing and through real-time satellite images from space—knowledge that is valuable for preserving the health and security of our oceans and valuable for partners in the Indo-Pacific region. The Indo-Pacific is the world’s fastest-growing economic region, and its importance will only continue to expand over time. In a world increasingly shaped by tensions, trade is not only an economic but, also, a geopolitical priority. It is also uniquely vulnerable to supply chain disruptions emerging from the region, as demonstrated during the pandemic. To grow the economy, create good jobs, and keep our competitive advantage, Canada must continue to expand into new export markets and create partnerships abroad.
The term “phishing” was first used and recorded in 1996 by a group of hackers who posed as employees of America Online, a then-popular online service provider. They used instant messaging and email to steal users’ passwords and gain access to their accounts. In the early 2000s, phishers turned their attention to online payment systems. For example, in 2003, cybercriminals started registering domain names that were slight variations of legitimate commerce sites, such as eBay and PayPal. They then sent mass mailings asking customers to visit the sites, enter passwords, and update their credit card and other identifying information.
Nikolas will deliver an energetic and inspiring keynote that shows you how hope is the energy that changes our world. He will share stories of cultural shifts, insights into new disruptive technologies, and strengthen strategic planning in your organization by embracing futures thinking. The people behind credit card interest rate reduction scams often impersonate financial institutions and claim to negotiate with credit card companies to lower your interest rates. The caller will tell you that the lower interest rates are for a limited time only and that you need to act now.
Many Canadians are being targeted by individuals claiming to offer reduced rates or deals for various services. You might receive a phone call from someone falsely claiming to be your “regular supplier” , telling you that the offer is a “special” or “available for a limited time” , or pretending to only confirm your address or existing order. If you agree to buy any of the supplies offered to you, they will often be overpriced and of bad quality. The scam might come as a proposal for a subscription disguised as an update of an existing listing in a business directory. You might also be led to believe that you are responding to an offer for a free listing when in fact it is an order for a listing requiring later payment. A directory listing or unauthorized advertising scam tries to bill a business for a listing or advertisement in a magazine, journal or business directory, or for an online directory listing.