Profile

Michael Kwan is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Asia Pacific Internet Centre Limited (APIC) since October 2018. He has more than 20 years of experience in the fields of IPR protection and cyber investigation/forensics. Before setting up the APIC, Michael was the Regional Director of Technology of the Motion Picture Association (MPA) for 4 years, responsible for copyright protection on behalf of the MPA members in the Asia Pacific region.

Operation experience

Michael started his career in IPR protection since 1995 when he was an Inspectorate of the Hong Kong Customs. During the period from 1995 to 1999, Michael successfully effected and prosecuted hundreds of criminal cases on retailers, distributors, manufacturers, production plants for copyright infringement and trademark counterfeiting. Given more and more crimes are involving digital evidence, Michael was tasked to setup and to manage the Computer Forensics Laboratory for the Hong Kong Customs in 2000. During the period from 2000 to 2007, Michael and his team have provided numerous supports to operational staffs in the identification & recovery of crucial digital evidence at the crime scene. He also led his team in the performance of hundreds of forensics examinations to seized digital equipment and devices for court purpose. Under the leadership of Michael, the Computer Forensics Laboratory was awarded the ISO 9001 on quality management and ISO 27001 on information security in 2006. In 2007, Michael was promoted to Assistant Superintendent and was posted back to the IPR protection jobs. From 2007 to 2014, Michael was overseeing the criminal enforcement of copyright and trademark infringements in Hong Kong. During the period, Michael has participated in many significant and transnational operations with other law enforcement agencies and right holders in the world. In addition, he also established the Electronic Crime Investigation Centre (ECIC) for the Hong Kong Customs. The roles of ECIC are to identify the latest cyber crime trends, formulate appropriate investigation techniques, and deliver trainings to operation staffs on technical investigative skills. Michael retired from Hong Kong Customs in Aug 2014 in the rank of Superintendent.

Train the professionals

Apart from operational issues, Michael was also a frequent speaker and lecturer to numerous local and international conferences, workshops and seminars. Examples of such conferences and seminars are: American Chamber of Commerce workshops in Hong Kong, International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) Working Group International Conference on Digital Forensics, China Computer Forensics Conference (CCFC), Society for the Policing of Cyberspace (POLCYB) International Conference, the INTERPOL International Law Enforcement IP Crime Conference, the INTERPOL Expert Group Meeting, the Australian Federal Police IP Crime Workshop, the Annual Regional European IPR Protection and Enforcement Conference, the US ICE IPR Symposium, the US IPR Centre Symposium on On-line IP Theft. For training, Michael has delivered trainings to organisations such as the Hong Kong Judiciary, the Singapore Police Force, Singapore Customs, Macao Customs, Korea Customs Service, Regional Intelligence Liaison Office for Asia and the Pacific, Public Security Bureau in Beijing, the Police Academy in Liaoning, the National Police University of China in Shenyang, the China Academy of Science in Beijing, the Renmin University of China in Beijing, the National Copyright Administration of the People's Republic of China.

Professional and academic accreditation

In the professional and academic fronts, Michael is the founder, ex-Chairman and Council Member of the Information Security & Forensic Society in Hong Kong. He got a PhD degree from the University of Hong Kong, with his research area in digital forensics. Michael also got two MSc degrees, Forensic Investigation from the Leicester University (London) and Telecommunications from the University of Science & Technology (Hong Kong). He is a Network and Information Security Engineer certified by the Ministry of Information Industry of the People's Republic of China, Microsoft Certified System Engineer and Microsoft Certified Database Administrator.

Presently, Michael is the Honorary Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science of the University of Hong Kong, teaching the module "E-Crime: Digital Crime Scene and Legal Sanctions". He is also the lecturer for the Postgraduate Diploma in IT Forensics of the School of Professional and Continuing Education, University of Hong Kong, teaching the modules "Forensics Science and Digital Forensics" and "Digital Forensics for Mobile and Wireless Communication".