New skills needed to tackle rise of cyber criminals

Detective Chief Inspector Mick Lawrenson, West Yorkshire Police’s strategic lead for cyber-crime, says more crimes than ever dealt with by his officers now involve an “internet or technological” element.

He says this means more officers will be called on to deal with crime committed using new technology and the traditional qualities needed by police ‘bobbies’ may change in coming years.

Members of the Home Affairs Select Committee warned last month that much low-level internet-based financial crime was falling into a “black hole” and was not reported to the police.

MPs said more officers should be trained in digital crime detection and e-crime experts protected from cuts as forces come to terms with dramatic reductions in Government funding.

And a leading Yorkshire crime-fighting organisation has warned that forces are “running to catch up” with the ever-evolving techniques used by cyber-criminals.

Cyber-crime, defined as “any crime that is committed using a computer or network, or hardware device”, was last year said by Interpol to be more profitable than international drug trafficking.

It varies from the lowest-level fraud carried out by lone individuals to organised gangs operating across international borders. A recent report from the Federation of Small Businesses said small companies are losing £785 million to cyber crime each year.

Mr Lawrenson said: “What I anticipate is that as technology progresses, as criminality progresses, the demand will increase. Whereas now the numbers are quite small to deal with this, we will probably need more people in the future.

“That is either a re-alignment of your current workforce in terms of upskilling them, in the short to medium term that is what it is, but in the longer term what you traditionally require from a bobby is probably going to change.”

West Yorkshire Police says it is often the most vulnerable who fall prey to crime committed online, with many reports relating to harassment via social media or financial crime committed through online market place websites.

A spokesman said: “We are working hard in conjunction with partner organisations to prevent and investigate such crimes.”

The Yorkshire region also boasts one of three regional e-crime hubs in the UK, launched in 2012, to help tackle the problem across force borders.

Mr Lawrenson said the “evolution” of criminality where criminals can transfer money into an off-shore account at the touch of a button rather than break into someone’s house meant it was important to ensure the force had the right mixture of skills.

He said: “We are looking at how we can incorporate our cyber-crime capability at a more serious level in our economic crime function, and are investing in training and software at a local level to give staff that capability to investigate things at a local level as well.

“Am I in a position where I can say we are absolutely brilliant at dealing with cyber-crime, no I’m not, but we’re moving in the right direction.”

Though cyber-crime can involve malicious software designed to attack computer networks, there has also been a rise in ‘cyber-enabled crime’ where new technology is used to carry out more old-fashioned offences.

In March, a woman was jailed for creating a Facebook page to sell wedding dresses before faking her own death to avoid handing over the goods she sold to brides in Yorkshire. Caroline Oates, 21, from Barnsley, was sentenced to 26 weeks in prison by Pontefract Magistrates for orchestrating the elaborate internet scam.

It was revealed earlier this year that businesses in the region have been hit with bills of up to £90,000 after being targeted by fraudsters who divert their phone lines to expensive premium rate numbers.

David Ransom, director of the Sheffield-based Business Crime Reduction Centre, which helps firms protect themselves against a variety of offences, said cyber-crime was an ever-changing area.

He said: “One thing that everyone is predicting is that we carry more and more of our personal data on mobile machines, phones or tablets, that is where the criminals will migrate to. They will always attack PCs and systems but they will mount more attacks on mobile equipment.”

He added: “Law enforcement is catching up but in a sense criminals have stolen a march on them. You will have cyber-crime officers who are highly-trained and very effective but because of capacity they will only deal with the most serious crimes so there is only so much they can do.”