NCA Sets Out To Help Protect UK From Cyber Threats

The UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) will be working together with Police and other partners across industry and the public sector to help businesses and citizens guard against cyber crime.

The NCA claims to have developed a number of “customised intelligence reports” for Internet hosting companies and service providers.

It compiled the reports using data provided for the country’s Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-UK) and the Shadowserver Foundation, an organisation that gathers intelligence about the “darker side” of the web.

NCA claims to have identified 5531 compromises on servers within the UK so far which can be used to send spam email, launch attacks against websites or servers and install phishing websites to gain access to sensitive information.

The Agency estimates that acting on this advice with its partners, especially with phishing being the number one cyber threat to the public and businesses, could clean up to half of the phishing attacks that originate in the country each month.

“Behind this week’s activity is the message that all of us, individuals, businesses or law enforcement agencies, have a role to play in making the UK a safe place to enjoy the huge opportunities provided by the Internet,” claimed Andy Archibald, deputy director of the NCA Cyber Crime Unit.

Awareness Is Key

“Awareness of the type of cyber crime dangers which are out there is vital, whoever you are, as is collaboration between organisations across different sectors, regions and countries to develop the most effective ways of combating those threats.

“We will continue to work with partners to pursue and disrupt the major crime groups targeting the UK, but also, crucially, to make the UK as difficult as possible a target for cyber criminals in the first place,” he added.

The NCA decided to conduct this activity after a number of high profile malware threats to the UK and hopes it can proactively assist network administrators managing key parts of the UK Internet infrastructure.

Police Across UK Involved

The customised intelligence reports will be issued by officers from ten Police Regional Organised Crime Units (ROCUs) which comprise of 43 individual Police forces, including Police Scotland and Police Service of Northern Ireland.

They will let businesses know of cyber threats on their systems and will also include information on how they can subscribe to customised live threat data feeds.

“Across the country, specialist cyber investigation teams in our ROCUs have developed the capability to take on cyber criminals and put a stop to their activity,” claimed deputy chief constable Peter Goodman, national Policing lead for cyber crime.

“The Internet is an incredible resource for all of us and we want the public to have confidence in the digital space. We can give them that confidence by relentlessly targeting those who use the Internet to commit crime.

“We alone cannot prevent people being targeted by cyber criminals. Nor can we mitigate all the effects of an attack. It is important that everyone does what they can to avoid falling victim to cyber criminals,” he added.

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