Cybercrime plays a huge part in fraud offence numbers today, with seven out of 10 scams now Internet-related, according to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau.
The complex and alien nature of such crimes however, means that they are not only difficult to combat, but also to detect and understand. To help tackle the rise in cybercrime, City of London Police has enlisted Internet security experts, Kaspersky Lab, to train its police officers at all levels on these ever-growing threats.
This training programme, the first of its kind with UK law enforcement, will provide them with the skills and knowledge to identify and resolve these crimes – from an individual victim encountering fraud during an online shopping-spree to a business losing thousands of pounds from a targeted attack.
The scheme will extend into further services and large enterprises across the UK, aiming to upskill the UK industry on ways to protect themselves against cyber-attacks.
Coupled with theoretical knowledge, the week-long training programme allows for a real hands-on experience, teaching vital skills such as inspecting network traffic, analysing hard-drive images and decompiling malicious software using specialised training tools and methodology developed by Kaspersky Lab.
The training also addresses the need for businesses to improve fraud reporting, to ensure police services and security agencies have a clear view of the issue.
The first of the programmes was attended and successfully completed by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau in February this year. While the course places emphasis on threats that are aimed at financial organisations and government bodies, which are the top targets for online fraud in the UK, the skills learnt by attendees will also be applicable when combating the cyber threats the general public face.
“As the complexity of cybercrime constantly increases, it’s imperative that the service’s knowledge of such threats increases at the same pace,” comments David Clark, detective chief superintendent Economic Crime Directorate of the City of London Police.
“With over 21 000 computer misuse crimes in the UK in the first quarter of 2014, it’s clear that people and businesses are at risk and need protecting. The UK police service needs to be ready to identify these crimes and have the knowledge to tackle them head on. This partnership with Kaspersky Lab further underlines our role as the national policing lead for economic crime and will enhance our capability for combating fraud and cybercrime nationwide.”
“It’s an honour for Kaspersky Lab to use this opportunity to equip City of London Police with our extensive and predictive security intelligence,” comments Veniamin Levtsov, vice-president: Corporate Sales and Business Development at Kaspersky Lab. “We have already spent 17 years developing a set of powerful techniques for data acquisition and investigation of cyber-crimes, and it should become a valuable tool for the law enforcement authorities in the UK.”
