Call for crime-busting cyber squad
THE successful hacking of an encrypted communication system used by criminal gangs has set new challenges for Britain’s National Crime Agency, reveals its boss.
Lynne Owens, director general of the NCA, now wants to team up with UK intelligence partners to exploit new science, data and technology.
In July, a top secret communications system used by criminals to trade drugs and guns was successfully penetrated.
Major crime figures were among more than 800 arrests across Europe after messages on Encrochat were intercepted and decoded. Globally more than 60,000 criminals were using it – around 10,000 in the UK. Cyber experts with French and Dutch police were able to hack into it without Encrochat or users realising.
It led to Operation Venetic, Britain’s largest single operation against organised crime. Ms Owens said: “Venetic is the most eye-watering exposure of the impact of encrypted communications in facilitating organised crime.
“Across the UK there have been more than 1,000 arrests now – and 87 firearms, 2.2 tonnes of class A drugs, around £57.5million in cash and 320 Encrochat devices seized. We’ve seen the importance of knowing what the highest criminals say to each other.”
She added: “All NCA investigations now encounter some form of encryption. So we want to go further in undermining criminal communications by enhancing our existing capabilities, building new ones and using them to deny safe spaces to criminals.”
There are 4,772 known organised crime groups operating in the UK, with about 350,000 people involved. Ms Owens said: “We need to transform a fragmented environment of data sets and users into a network of people with the right skills, and organisations with the right infrastructure.
“It will allow us to transform digitally, to ensure we have an innovative, digitally-capable workforce with the skills to tackle any future threat.”