Cybercrime in cloud: Risks and responses in Hong Kong, Singapore

The popularity and commercialization of the “Internetwork” began in the late 1990s through the interconnection of computer networks using special gateways or routers to transfer packets of electronic data. As with many things in life, Internetwork technology has had both positive and negative effects on society, and Asia has been no exception. One of the negative effects has been a surge in Internet crime. According to a report released by the Gartner Consulting Group, in 2013 smart phone sales exceeded regular phone sales for the first time, with 968 million smart phones sold, representing 54% of the global mobile phone total and an increase of 54% from 2012. The popularity and technology of the mobile Internetwork, especially the smart mobile phone web, has changed the Internetwork landscape through the concept of cloud computing. Cloud computing is distributed computing over a network, using a program or application that can run on many connected computers and in different locations around the globe simultaneously at a reduced cost. This distributed cloud computing presents law enforcement authorities with the unique challenge of policing Internet crime. Cloud computing relies on sharing resources to achieve coherence, and in doing so creates economies of scale for converged infrastructures and shared services. Accordingly, one problem facing the authorities is the presence of trans- and multijurisdictional crimes. In this chapter, I explore this topic in the contexts of Hong Kong and Singapore, as both are key players on the international stage, especially in relation to international finance and information technology. In both locations, infrastructure works to maintain global financial center status. The remainder of this chapter is organized as follows. A brief overview of the development of cloud computing is followed by an examination of cybercrime risks in the cloud. Then, I review how the authorities in Hong Kong and Singapore respond to cybercrime risks and explore the current government policies on cloud computing, particularly in fighting cybercrime.