Louise Haigh: Cyber crime complacency has to end

Last week that was blown apart. The crimes which concern the public the most – violent assault, the use of weapons – have rocketed. So, too, for the first time in many years, has what statisticians call “acquisitive crime” – robberies and burglaries to you and me.

Most people thought that improvements in technology meant the days of increases in crimes like car thefts were a thing of the past. But the brutal reduction in police numbers, the steady, reckless erosion of neighbourhood policing and the unprecedented demand on overstretched police forces has vacated a crucial space in our communities.

And criminals are filling the gap. I know, as a former special constable how much this concerns the public and the truth is they are right to be worried. Cuts to police forces have risked public safety.

But one theme of the annual release of crime figures was familiar. And that is that there was almost no discussion whatsoever about the rise in the most commonly experienced crime of all. Not burglary, theft or assault but cyber crime.

In fact, it isn’t even included in the overall figures.

This low-value, high-volume crime (most involve the theft of a not-insignificant amount of around £250) has rocketed to over 5m incidents a year. The National Audit Office now estimate that online crime costs the public an astonishing £10bn per year.

That tells a story in itself; with public awareness so low you would expect the Government to fill the gap. But that’s not what has happened. Government action has been utterly pitiful and many police forces feel powerless at a local level to stop the rise.

A Joint Taskforce was set up in February 2016 and so far we are yet to see a single announcement or action from this group. The Prime Minister keeps telling us that cyber crime has to be the priority and that’s why bobbies have been taken off the beat yet she’s singularly failing to match her words with action.

Such is the shambolic nature of the battle against cyber fraud, the Government have a hotch-potch of 10 separate awareness campaigns and when I asked the simple question of how many are being reached, they couldn’t give me an answer.

They cannot afford to be this complacent any longer. We clearly need to build resilience to this growing threat. We’ve been calling for a proper programme of online education to educate schoolchildren on how to stay safe online and to make sure the millions of people without basic digital skills are brought up to speed.

But once a crime has been committed the resources the police have to tackle the threat are far too low when compared to the challenge. It is the most common crime but just one in 150 police officers are there to fight it.

Take identity theft for instance; 
when a case comes in to a local force it is likely to be complex and the criminal network is more often than not international.

Local forces simply don’t have the support to properly investigate.

That has to change and it will only change when our overstretched police service are given the resources they need to meet the challenge.

It isn’t just about individuals either. We saw this year with the high-profile cyber attacks the damage that can be caused by even relatively unsophisticated attacks. The NHS was forced to use back-up systems and multi-million pound companies were affected.

It emerged that hackers had exploited the ageing Windows XP computers which had been left with no protection at all. Little wonder when the funding squeeze has forced much of the public sector and infrastructure to rely on ageing computers.

The Government need to ensure that other critical infrastructure systems are updated. Without doing so it’s like trying to defend our most important assets with a bow and arrow. But, above all, we need to see the Government finally accept that their assault on the police service has backfired. The public deserve a well-resourced police force that can keep our communities safe and tackle new types of crime.

It is time the Government reversed course before any more damage is done.

Louise Haigh MP. Shadow Policing Minister and Member of Parliament for Sheffield Heeley