Group-IB, a resident company of the Skolkovo Foundation that specializes in the prevention of cyber-attacks, has announced the official opening of their global headquarters in Singapore. In addition to the region-wide promotion of cutting-edge technology that helps prevent cyber-attacks and investigate cyber-crimes, including financial fraud. Group-IB also focuses on cooperation with local universities and the preparation of technical staff.
In early June, the headquarters of Group-IB in Singapore, located in the “Fragrance Empire Building” Business Center, welcomed the first employees from the Moscow office. The new members of the group included leading experts from the Computer Crime Lab, Investigation Department, the Brand Protection Department and Threat Intelligence Department.
Illustration provided by Group-IB.
As part of the company’s global strategy to expand its geographic presence in key financial centers of the world, the first steps of the Singapore team included setting up “mirror” divisions in Singapore that would copy the unique structure of the company’s Moscow office: The Lab of Computer Crimes and Study of Harmful Codes, the Department for Investigating Information Security Incidents, the CERT-GIB Department for Round-the-Clock Monitoring and Incident Management and the R&D Department amongst others. Group-IB will also continue actively expanding its business in Russia: the Moscow office, where more than 300 people are employed, will remain the center for product development of the company.
“Singapore is in the heart of the APAC region, the priority direction for development of Group-IB’s business, since only 29% of international revenue of the company comes from the APAC region in general and Singapore in particular,” says Ilya Sachkov, General Director and founder of Group-IB. “We expect that these figures will continue to grow due to expanding partnerships with Singapore-based companies, the use of our technology and services, and attraction of local specialists. The Government of Singapore has not only created a comfortable and transparent ecosystem of doing business and investing but has also made cyber security issues its top priority.”
Ilya Sachkov (right) demonstrates Group-IB products to Koh Poh Koon,
State Minister of Trade and Industry of Singapore (left). Photo: Sk.ru
One of the key tasks for the Headquarters will be the search for, and training of, local specialists in the field of analyzing cyber threats, experts in cyber crime prevention, fraud analytics and reverse engineering. These newly trained specialists will be hired in the very near future. Two specialists have already joined the international team of Group-IB. Shafik Davud, director for APAC business development with 15 years of experience in leading cyber security companies in the region, and Sean Tey, analyst in the Department of Cyber Reconnaissance, who is an expert on cyber threats that are significant for the APAC region.
“It is not an easy task to find employees that correspond to the high demands of Group-IB,” says Nicholas Palmer, Director for Development of International Business at Group-IB. “This is why the most important element of our strategy includes working with the leading universities of Singapore on preparing highly qualified experts in cyber security and the creation of joint educational programs and courses. Recently Group-IB signed a memorandum of understanding with the Singapore Institute of Management, and has already started work on creating an educational program in the sphere of cyber security.”
Group-IB has a network of partner organizations in the APAC region, which includes companies from Vietnam and Thailand that are already promoting Group-IB’s products and solutions in their respective markets. Since 2017 Group-IB has been actively cooperating with the Singapore-based INTERPOL Digital Crime Centre. These partnerships are very important when we discuss international cyber crime prevention: they help expedite the exchange of data on hacker groups, effective investigation of cyber crime and financial fraud.