Organised cyber crime is more lucrative than selling drugs, expert warns

Detective Chief Inspector Steve Thomas of the Regional Cyber Crime Unit told the event at The Royal Armouries in Leeds that cyber crime could damage a company’s reputation and lead to heavy regulatory fines.

In some cases, the activities of cyber criminals have led to suicides, DCI Thomas said.

But DCI Thomas told the audience: “You need to understand that there is a positive outcome from engaging with law enforcement.”

The event – Protecting Your Business from Cyber Crime –which was organised by Barclays, heard that the cost of fraud to the UK private sector is estimated to be £21.2bn per year.

The 100-strong audience was told that one in four businesses in the UK have been hit by fraud; with over a third of these incidents linked to cyber crime.

Speaking afterwards, DCI Thomas told The Yorkshire Post that companies have a responsibility to make sure their customers and staff were not targeted by criminals.

DCI Thomas said that, with support from law enforcement and other agencies, around 90 per cent of cyber attacks could be thwarted.

He added: “Sometimes these aren’t targeted attacks, they are very generalised, large scale almost fishing attacks, where people are just sending lots of information looking to 
see what they can gain, and whether they can expose vulnerabilities.

“It’s really important people aren’t overburdened by the fear, but just recognise it’s there, and put simple steps in place to protect themselves.

“We’re still in the infancy of people understanding cyber attacks, so any figures we collect aren’t really going to be a true reflection of the scale.”

He said the biggest increases in crime were around cyber criminality and fraud.

“You have got organised crime groups, who in the past, maybe operated in the sale of drugs and arms... where law enforcement has something more tangible to be able to investigate, disrupt and unravel.

“They are moving in to this (cyber) world. In certain parts of the world, you will find that this is almost state-supported cyber terrorism, where you’ve got a slightly political undertone to certain organisations.

“There are digital maps available on the internet where you can look at cyber attacks in real time.

“You can see that this is an organised business, where you would have large scale, almost warehouses, full of computer operators who are being directed to either develop malicious codes and threats that get sent out to people’s computers, or to attack systems and services of big players... and try and deflect their business for whatever gain they may seek.

“As an organised crime business, it’s more lucrative than selling drugs.”

It’s estimated that around 65 per cent of small and medium-sized enterprises in Yorkshire have been attacked by cyber criminals, with an average cost to the business of £65,000 to £115,000.

Last year, telecoms firm TalkTalk said it would take a hit of up to £35m from a cyber attack. Dido Harding, the company’s chief executive, said TalkTalk took the security of customers’ data extremely seriously and the firm was taking extra steps to ensure its systems were protected.