Four trends in online crime we uncovered in our recent policing roundtable

The challenges of online crime and public safety already existed before the pandemic, but Covid-19 highlighted the need for officers to have the right skills to investigate new types of crime.

Simon Kempton, Treasurer, Police Federation of England and Wales noted the rise specifically in online criminal activities. He said, “How do we safeguard people… when they’re spending more time online? We saw with children that they were at greater risk during the pandemic.

“One thing it did show us, starkly, was the ability of criminals and criminality to adapt quickly. One area we really have to improve, if we’re going to protect the public, is identifying and challenging criminals online.”

DI Hinesh Mehta, Cyber Crime Unit Manager, West Midlands Police also noted that “[The pandemic] created fertile ground for criminals, who knew of some of the vulnerabilities that existed to go and target those providers and gather that information. They would then subsequently leak it or hold it to ransom.”

Martyn Evans, Chair of the Scottish Police Authority noted that “[The pandemic] accelerated a whole range of technologies which are seemingly obvious now”, also explaining that since the pandemic restrictions were lifted, crime levels have risen to where they were before.

The victim impact of online offences is sometimes viewed differently to in-person offences.

But the intrusion and impact on victims’ feelings of safety should not be forgotten.

Increased working from home created a lot of opportunities for criminals to target individuals who may not have understood the potential risks.

As Mandy Kauer, Legal Exploitation of Data and Evidence Strategic Lead from the College of Policing pointed out, “through data insights [we’ve noticed that] traditional crimes are moving online”, and “the data that we collect nationally has started to change its patterns of criminality”.

DI Hinesh Mehta explained how the move from on-premises platforms to the cloud created fresh opportunities for tech-savvy criminals to target both businesses – particularly small businesses – and individuals who had transitioned to working from home.

Remote working, he explained, posed new dangers because employees were increasingly using their personal equipment and home internet to access data held by their employers.

Several participants emphasised the importance of early detection and prevention in combating cybercrime.

DI Hinesh continued, “With cybercrime, in some way it’s quite unique in that we can’t arrest our way out of it.

“So, we have to be a bit more thoughtful. The whole prevention issue is pretty big. We need to stop people from becoming victims in the first place. Thankfully, with cyber offences and fraud as well, the education bit becomes really important.”

DI Hinesh also recognised that things are changing, however: “We’ve seen a lot more awareness from the general public about what the dangers are, so things are a little, bit better.”

Prevention of cybercrime, fraud, online abuse, and other online offences is not just for the police to manage, but for other agencies and organisations in collaboration with policing.

Deputy Chief Constable Malcolm Graham of Police Scotland cited inspiration from the public-private collaborations at state level in responding to the challenges posed by cybercrime.

He said, “There needs to be a state-based response. We’ve got a fantastic cyber defence – proactively and reactively in the UK. We’ve got some really good public-private sector collaborations, and we’re in a really good position globally.

“It’s very different for an organisation like policing where we’re used to building our own capability. We can’t do this on our own, we can’t develop the technology on our own – and neither should we seek to.”

DI Hinesh echoed this, “We engage with the public, and we engage with communities, we engage with outreach groups. It’s for us to engage with those groups and educate those people and make that education widespread.

“With public-private partnerships there is a cultural change. And it’s accepting that the skillset doesn’t always sit with policing. There are experts out there who are willing to work with us and assist us.”