T

he wide-spread and increasingly sophisticated cybercrimes across the globe have prompted International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) member countries to reach an agreement to ease the process of sharing intelligence.

This was considered an important outcome reached during the second day of the 85th Interpol General Assembly in Nusa Dua, Bali.

The forum acknowledged cybercrimes had continued to become more advanced with internet criminals improving their skills very quickly, posing major challenges to law enforcement agencies around the world.

The 190 Interpol member countries agreed to improve human resources for their officials in charge of tackling cybercrimes.

“The development of information technology makes it easy to commit crimes. Cybercrime has seen an increase in sophisticated execution. Swift sharing of intelligence information would help contain cybercrimes,” National Police’s international affairs division head Brig. Gen Johny Asadoma said on Tuesday.

Attended by 166 Interpol member countries, the four-day conference will conclude on Thursday and is expected to devise a new scheme to combat global threats, such as terrorism, cybercrimes, human trafficking and money laundering.

National Police chief Gen. Tito Karnavian spoke to the forum on Monday when he shared Indonesia’s success stories in combating terrorism.

Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti is slated to give a key note speech on Wednesday to explain Indonesia’s strategies in tackling illegal fishing, and its destructive environmental impacts.

Tito said terrorism had no boundaries, thus mutual legal assistance and joint cooperation among Interpol members was key in combating terrorism.

“Thousands of people have joined IS in Iraq and Syria. We need to focus more on prevention to combat terrorism,” Tito said.

The forum made an agreement to push Interpol member countries to speed up the investigations on red notices of criminal suspects or fugitives sent by member countries to Interpol headquarters in Lyon, France.

Under the agreement, any red notice proposal sent to the headquarters will automatically appear on relevant Interpol member countries’ information systems in hope that the countries would swiftly respond to the request.

As of this year, Interpol issued a total of 599 red notices of which 83 were made by the Indonesian National Police. Interpol has helped Indonesia nab 11 fugitives as of 2015.

Four of them were repatriated this year, namely former Bank Modern president commissioner Samadikun Hartono (China), Bank Century bailout scandal fugitive Hartawan Aluwi (Singapore), former Temanggung regent Totok Ary Prabowo (Cambodia) and Bulgarian Dimitar Nikolov Iliev (Serbia).

On the sidelines of the assembly, the National Police held bilateral meetings with 11 countries, including Australia, Germany, Japan, Timor-Leste, Turkey, the US and Vietnam.

The Bali forum will also elect a new leader on Thursday to replace outgoing Interpol President Mireille Ballestrazzi.