Met police chief calls on banks to help fund new cyber-crime unit

Scotland Yard chief Bernard Hogan-Howe is calling on banks to help fund a new London cyber-crime fighting unit, admitting that traditional policing methods are failing against high-tech crooks.

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Met police chief calls on banks to help fund new cyber-crime unit

Editorial

This content has been selected, created and edited by the Finextra editorial team based upon its relevance and interest to our community.

The Met, through the Police Central e-crime Unit, has until recently been responsible for fighting cyber-crime in England and Wales but a new National Crime Agency is taking over its duties and poaching many of its officers.

In a column for the London Evening Standard, Commissioner Hogan-Howe says that the Met will now create another unit as part of a "major step change" in the way online crime is treated.

Despite the fact that there has been a 60% rise in the number of reported cyber-crimes over the last year, Hogan-Howe admits that only a fraction of those which go through the Action Fraud centre ever make it to the police.

The Met will take a far more aggressive approach to taking on the crooks, dedicating "hundreds more officers" to catching perpetrators, improving prevention and tackling organised gangs.

To help fund the new push, Hogan-Howe says he will speak to partners in the commercial sector, "especially in the banking industry," who often bear the brunt of fraud-related costs.

Earlier this year the Home Affairs Committee accused banks of letting cyber-crooks carry out crime in a 'black hole' of impunity by failing to report or investigate fraud.

Says Hogan-Howe: "We know that banks absorb a huge amount of the cost of this type of crime while hugely under-reporting it, and I hope a reinvigorated partnership can improve this state of affairs."

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Comments: (1)

A Finextra member 

Collectively funding a team to fight e-crime? Good idea. Sourcing that capability form the Met? I'm not so sure about that. Might be better to look for an organisation with a record of delivery.

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