Business has a crucial role in fighting cyber crime in terms of intelligence sharing and pursuing cyber criminals, according to the country’s top cyber cops
UK law enforcement has an established and effective co-ordination plan in place that is resulting in arrests, but under-reporting is a huge problem and business has a key role to play.
This was the key message from the National Crime Agency (NCA), National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) at a media briefing in London.
“Without business, we are dead in the water, because what our sources can tell us about what is happening is a fraction of the intelligence businesses can provide,” said chief constable Peter Goodman, NPCC lead for cyber crime.
“But with input from business, we are really data rich in a much more strategic way than what we have got so far, and we are doing all we can to build relationships with different sectors at all levels of law enforcement so that we can be in a really healthy position in future,” he said.
Of an estimated 1.8 million cyber crimes in the UK in the past year, only 30,000 were reported to the police, which makes it extremely difficult to gather the intelligence required to pursue criminals and put them behind bars, according to Oliver Gower, deputy director of the NCA and head of the NCA’s National Cyber Crime Unit (NCCU).
“We need businesses to report more because we depend on industry talking to us, but we have section 7 under the Crime & Courts Act which enables them to share information confidentially without having to trigger a formal crime report.
“However, our emphasis is on formally reporting any cyber crime because it is a reality of modern business, there needs to be more openness around this issue and it enables is to carry out a full investigation,” he said.
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