Beirut- Lebanon’s Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh affirmed that Lebanon has completed required legislation regarding digital security. He said that Lebanon considers – combating money laundering and fighting funding terrorism – a priority and therefore participating through its private and public sectors in this field.
Salameh made the call in his address to the 2nd Anti-Cyber-crime Forum themed “Fighting Digital Fraud and Piracy in the Banking and Commercial Sectors in Lebanon.”
The event is organized by Al Iktissad Wal-Aamal group, in collaboration with Special Investigation Commission (SIC) of the Central Bank of Lebanon and the Cybercrime and the Intellectual Property Bureau of the Directorate General of the Internal Security Forces.
Governor Riad Salameh said that the cyber-crime has been worrying governments and monitoring bodies – since they are suspected to be linked to terrorism.
“These crimes have increased throughout the past three years,” secretary general of the central bank’s SIC Abdul-Hafeez Mansour told the forum.
“In 2011, the SIC received one report on a single case when USD 5,500 were embezzled,” he said. “In 2015, SIC 84 reports… So far in 2016, 86 out of 137 piracy crimes were fruitful while the concerned control bodies thwarted 51 others,” he added.
For his part, Deputy CEO of Al Iktissad Wal-Aamal group Faisal Abu Zaki, hailed the efforts of Salameh to protect the monetary, banks and economy from the impact of internal regional and international crises.