TRENDS IN COMBATING MONEY LAUNDERING IN THE EUROPEAN CONTEXT

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the result of the decisions addressed in preventing and combating money laundering by Romania, together with the other member states of the European Union, following the regulations changes in the field. Against the background of technological developments and new threats, regulators have developed rules and procedures to prevent the exploitation of the financial system for the purpose of money laundering, with clear deadlines for transposition into national law. In order to determine the impact of the joint effort in the fight against money laundering, we analyzed the annual reports of European Financial Intelligence Units for 2018 and 2019 and the reports for the last ten years (2011-2020) of the National Office for Preventing and Combating Money Laundering in Romania. Based on the data from these reports, the study presents trends by using, inter alia, descriptive statistics. The results of our study draw attention to the increase in the number of reports of suspicious transactions, the number of cases sent for investigation to the competent authorities, the number of requests for information or dissemination of information to foreign FIUs, the volume of suspended transactions and amounts seized or confiscated by authorities. Although European Union Member States have responded to the obligation to transpose European directives, further steps are needed to create a common framework for action and reporting, so that the combined efforts have real results in line with the expectations of the European institutions. Through the results presented, the study supports governmental and non-governmental entities, highlighting the areas that need immediate attention

A cryptocurrency spectrum short analysis

Technological development brings about economic changes that affect most citizens, both in developed and undeveloped countries. The implementation of blockchain technologies that bring cryptocurrencies into the economy and everyday life also induce risks. Authorities are continuously concerned about ensuring balance, which is, among other things, a prudent attitude. Achieving this goal sometimes requires the development of standards and regulations applicable at the national or global level. This paper attempts to dive deeper into the worldwide operations, related to cryptocurrencies, as part of a general phenomenon, and also expose some of the intersections with cybercrime. Without impeding creativity, implementing suggested proposals must comply with the rules in effect and provide sufficient flexibility for adapting and integrating them. Different segments need to align or reposition, as alteration is only allowed in a positive way. Adopting cryptocurrency decisions should be unitary, based on standard policies

A Cryptocurrency Spectrum Short Analysis

Technological development brings about economic changes that affect most citizens, both in developed and undeveloped countries. The implementation of blockchain technologies that bring cryptocurrencies into the economy and everyday life also induce risks. Authorities are continuously concerned about ensuring balance, which is, among other things, a prudent attitude. Achieving this goal sometimes requires the development of standards and regulations applicable at the national or global level. This paper attempts to dive deeper into the worldwide operations, related to cryptocurrencies, as part of a general phenomenon, and also expose some of the intersections with cybercrime. Without impeding creativity, implementing suggested proposals must comply with the rules in effect and provide sufficient flexibility for adapting and integrating them. Different segments need to align or reposition, as alteration is only allowed in a positive way. Adopting cryptocurrency decisions should be unitary, based on standard policies

Privacy Intrusiveness in Financial-Banking Fraud Detection

Specialty literature and solutions in the market have been focusing in the last decade on collecting and aggregating significant amounts of data about transactions (and user behavior) and on refining the algorithms used to identify fraud. At the same time, legislation in the European Union has been adopted in the same direction (e.g., PSD2) in order to impose obligations on stakeholders to identify fraud. However, on the one hand, the legislation provides a high-level description of this legal obligation, and on the other hand, the solutions in the market are diversifying in terms of data collected and, especially, attempts to aggregate data in order to generate more accurate results. This leads to an issue that has not been analyzed yet deeply in specialty literature or by legislators, respectively, the privacy concerns in case of profile building and aggregation of data for fraud identification purposes and responsibility of stakeholders in the identification of frauds in the context of their obligations under data protection legislation. This article comes as a building block in this direction of research, as it contains (i) an analysis of existing fraud detection methods and approaches, together with their impact from a data protection legislation perspective and (ii) an analysis of respondents’ views toward privacy in case of fraud identification in transactions based on a questionnaire in this respect having 425 respondents. Consequently, this article assists in bridging the gap between data protection legislation and implementation of fraud detection obligations under the law, as it provides recommendations for compliance with the latter legal obligation while also complying with data protection aspects

Legal, Economic and Cyber Security Framework Considerations for Drone Usage

Drones have been used in recent years more and more in various economic sectors (e.g., military, agriculture, retail, transport), but also for personal use and entertainment. The current legislative framework and cyber security standards do not fully address the identification of liable stakeholders in the drone ecosystem for cyber-incidents and the requirement to implement preventive cyber-security measures. The aim of this paper is to investigate how the usage of drones fits in the context of the digital economy. For this purpose, we use a complex questionnaire which was sent to a total of 233 respondents from May to July 2021. The responses are analyzed from a qualitative and quantitative perspective. Our results highlight the areas of improvement in the existing legislation and find the following: (1) respondents are willing to pay additional direct and indirect costs related to cyber security to benefit from more secure drones, (2) the entire ecosystem involved in drone production, distribution, and usage is responsible for ensuring the prevention of security breaches, and (3) respondents perceive a shared liability of stakeholders for certain types of cyber-attacks depending on the role of the stakeholders in the drone ecosystem and the type of vulnerability exploited by the cyber-attack. The details on the specific cyber-attack use cases detail each of the above for each type of cyber-attack. Finally, we make proposals to accommodate the new types of use cases brought by the use of drones in various economic contexts. The results of this research paper assist policy makers in terms of improvement to existing legislation in terms of the drone ecosystem. In addition, they increase visibility for stakeholders in the drone ecosystem in terms of aspects to focus on in order to increase the trust of clients in drone usage

Efficiency of Money Laundering Countermeasures: Case Studies from European Union Member States

The aim of this study is to present the trends and effectiveness of money laundering countermeasures from the perspective of a number of suspicious transactions reported to the Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs), a number of analysis results submitted to law enforcement authorities, and the typologies of cases in European Union Member States. In order to determine the impact of the joint effort in the fight against money laundering, we used descriptive statistics to process the data and case studies from annual reports of the European FIUs for 2018 and 2019. The results of our study highlight the increase in the number of suspicious transactions notices, as well as in their quality level. There is an increasing tendency towards information exchange between European Union countries regarding the suspicion of money laundering, but there is no stable trend for referring cases to law enforcement and other responsible institutions. Based on the available data, it can be concluded that the EU anti money laundering measures are efficient, but further steps are needed to achieve higher international coordination and cooperation

Legal, Economic and Cyber Security Framework Considerations for Drone Usage

Drones have been used in recent years more and more in various economic sectors (e.g., military, agriculture, retail, transport), but also for personal use and entertainment. The current legislative framework and cyber security standards do not fully address the identification of liable stakeholders in the drone ecosystem for cyber-incidents and the requirement to implement preventive cyber-security measures. The aim of this paper is to investigate how the usage of drones fits in the context of the digital economy. For this purpose, we use a complex questionnaire which was sent to a total of 233 respondents from May to July 2021. The responses are analyzed from a qualitative and quantitative perspective. Our results highlight the areas of improvement in the existing legislation and find the following: (1) respondents are willing to pay additional direct and indirect costs related to cyber security to benefit from more secure drones, (2) the entire ecosystem involved in drone production, distribution, and usage is responsible for ensuring the prevention of security breaches, and (3) respondents perceive a shared liability of stakeholders for certain types of cyber-attacks depending on the role of the stakeholders in the drone ecosystem and the type of vulnerability exploited by the cyber-attack. The details on the specific cyber-attack use cases detail each of the above for each type of cyber-attack. Finally, we make proposals to accommodate the new types of use cases brought by the use of drones in various economic contexts. The results of this research paper assist policy makers in terms of improvement to existing legislation in terms of the drone ecosystem. In addition, they increase visibility for stakeholders in the drone ecosystem in terms of aspects to focus on in order to increase the trust of clients in drone usage

Proposals of Processes and Organizational Preventive Measures against Malfunctioning of Drones and User Negligence

Drones have been included in more and more activities in various domains, such as military, commercial and personal use. The existing legislative framework insufficiently addresses the responsibility and preventive measures angles in case of vulnerability exploitation and negligence in drone usage. Such aspects can be addressed by the industry in technological processes and standardization. These are especially important aspects given the high impact that misuse of drones can have on individuals, property and buildings within the flight zone when the drone is misused. The aim of this research paper is to investigate how these elements are viewed in existing legislation and by individuals, while taking into account the technical specifics and the stakeholder ecosystem of drone usage. In this respect, we use a complex questionnaire which was sent to a final number of 233 respondents pertaining to firms specialized in IT, legal and cybersecurity. The responses have been analyzed from a qualitative and quantitative perspective. Our results highlight the areas of improvement in the existing standardization and find the followings: (1) stakeholders across the drone ecosystem are viewed as having a shared liability in certain use cases, (2) preventive measure implementation should be dispersed across the stakeholders of drone usage and (3) automation of prevention measures is considered more useful in case of malfunctioning or misuse of drones rather than user manual intervention. In addition, we make proposals to accommodate new policy requirements for the above use cases. The results of this research paper assist policy makers in improving existing standardization framework and technological processes concerning drone usage, but also stakeholders of the drone ecosystem in generating increased trust of the drone users. Further, this research paper can also assist drone software and hardware producers in calibrating their products to ensure trust of the users. In addition, trust in the use of drones for commercial and personal purposes is increased through standardization and proper approaches for situations that may cause damages to drones and to third parties