Police chiefs publish first UK e-crime strategy

The PcEU will sit within the Met

The Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) has for the first time published a strategy outlining its approach to tackling e-crime.

The wide-ranging strategy lays out in detail plans for improving all law-enforcement agencies capability for tackling cyber crime.

"This strategy is designed to assist law enforcement in building a response to this very real challenge," said Janet Williams, Acpo lead on e-crime.

"We are starting from a low base and there is much to be done. I am, however, confident that with government support and by developing robust, proactive partnerships with industry, success can be achieved and that success will create its own momentum."

Immediate priorities are improving the accuracy of e-crime recording, improving skills and awareness of frontline officers, increasing specialist investigative capabilities, establishing processes to co-ordinate response across the country, building parternships with industry and academia, and educating the public.

The strategy proposes that the National Fraud Reporting Centre (NFRC) should take national responsibility for the reporting of e-cCrime alongside fraud.

The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau will collate, analyse and disseminate intelligence to local forces, the newly-established Police Central e-crime Unit (PCeU), and the Serious and Organised Crime Agency, based upon crime reports made to the NFRC.

The PcEU will sit within the Metropolitan police and will co-ordinate response to cyber crime allegations that span force boundaries and specialist and international units. It will also provide a national investigative function for the most serious incidents, such as big hacks, denial of service attacks, large data breaches, large scale phishing and attacks on the UK's critical national infrastructure.

The PcEU will also liaise on a virtual taskforce, with academia, banks, telecoms firms and ISPs, universities and Chatham House.

To improve the response and skills at a local level Acpo is looking at the pooling of specialist e-crime resources from forces in each region into collaborative hubs. It will also review and revise all bespoke e-crime training courses and introduce relevant content into all police training.

The plan will aim to improve forensic skills by identifying the most appropriate and cost effective tool for forensic triage – the efficient removal of evidence from a computer without interference.

Acpo is also setting in motion a specific programme looking at neutralising the threat of an e-crime attack on the London Olympics, and is currently working on a threat assessment.

The strategy will be reviewed in 18 months' time.