Soca reveals its cybercrime-fighting successes
Date: May 19, 2008Source: News.zdnet.co.uk
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The police body tasked with fighting e-crime in the UK has revealed some of its cybercrime-fighting successes — but e-crime still appears a low priority.
The 2007 to 2008 report details work by Soca (the Serious Organised Crime Agency) over the past year.
Notable cybercrime successes include Operation Ajowan, in which Soca broke up a website where criminals traded stolen bank, credit and identity information that could have cost the UK finance sector at least £6m.
In another operation Soca blocked the deployment of an advanced Trojan that was harvesting personal and financial data — the criminals were arrested and losses restricted to £265,000 out of the possible £6m-plus.
Soca has also sent out 46 alerts to UK business, which included 11 alerts to UK financial institutions detailing more than 46,000 online account details that had been compromised by phishing and virus attacks; a system for UK call centres to protect personal data; and fraud alert systems for banks and businesses.
The report details scores of successful operations to stop drug trafficking, but there is little mention of the work of Soca's e-crime unit, and it does not specify how many of its 2,033 arrests were related to cybercrime.
The National High Tech Crime Unit (NHCTU) was rolled into Soca in 2006, prompting claims from business and politicians that cybercrime policing was being diluted.
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