A year after the Cybercrime Group was formed police can reveal they have amassed 261 hard drives ready to be destroyed as they combat the ever-increasing number of cybercrime offences.
Detective Chief Superintendent Darren Best concedes that advances in technology can be both a blessing and a curse saying: “As the criminal increases their technical expertise, we too need to ensure we can keep up with such advances. This is why this group was established a year ago. We needed to bring together experts from each field within the Force – from Intelligence, Economic Crime, Safeguarding and Child Protection, Major Crime and Technical Examination to linking in with University Academics to aid in developing our systems along with our own training department to ensure our officers are fully equipped to deal with the emerging changes.
“We also have regional representation on the group to look at trends and criminal activity across the whole of the North East.”
“Cybercrime covers a huge remit of offences – from multi-national companies committing large-scale fraud to the unscrupulous pundits baying for trade on-line, often by selling event tickets, second-hand goods or services that don’t exist or never turn up. Hacking into computers and accessing customer accounts is also an area seeing a marked increase in computer fraud.
“It covers the murky world of on-line grooming and Child Sexual Exploitation – using pseudonyms and fake accounts to entice young people into entering into relationships.
“It offers a platform to carry out bullying, revenge-porn and trolling whilst hiding behind the misconception that perpetrators cannot be traced or prosecuted.”
“But its not all bad news – the vast amount of the crimes committed online which affect the majority of people are preventable. There are many steps people can take to make sure they stay safe online.
“Ensuring passwords are changed regularly and are sufficiently complex and that you have adequate security installed is as important as fitting a burglar alarm to your home and mounting the right locks to doors and windows. You wouldn’t leave your home at risk of being burgled so ensure you take the same precautions with your computers, telephones and other devices.”
“Seeing these 261 devices destroyed today gives me great satisfaction that our intelligence is strong and our techniques are working – but I am mindful that we cannot rest on our laurels and that as we close down one avenue, the criminal will seek to prosper in another. That is why we will continue to develop our technology and maintain resources in this hugely important area of criminal activity.”
This will be carried out by Concept ‘Management who are our preferred partner for the disposal as they provide a secure, robust service that meets and exceeds Centre for Protection to National Infrastructure (CPNI) guidelines and are fully accredited and fully licensed by the Environmental Agency.
