Lockdown scams so brazen even I was targeted, says cyber spy chief

BRITAIN’S cyber spy chief was himself the target of email scammers during lockdown, he said as he revealed GCHQ received more than two million reports from the public of online crime during the lockdown.

Ciaran Martin, who heads the

National Cyber Security Centre, the agency’s public-facing branch, said he received a phishing email telling him he had to pay a £35 fine after he had been spotted breaking the lockdown rules.

Mr Martin, who is stepping down from his post next month, said the email highlighted how cyber criminals had used the pandemic to try to exploit people’s fears. In an interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme yesterday, he said: “When you think of examples [of cyber attacks] during the pandemic – and this happened to me personally – I got something that looked like it’s from the Government, from .gov.uk.

“[It was] telling me I have been spotted leaving my house three times in lockdown and inviting me on to a website to pay a £35 fine. It is important that we know how to spot those and what to do.”

In April, the centre launched a hotline for the public to report scams that try to con people into paying fines or pretend to be selling products such as face masks and hand sanitiser, which were scarce in the opening months of the pandemic. The helpline received more than 5,000 reports of scams on its first day alone. Since then, Mr Martin said, the agency had received almost two million reports from members of the public.

During the interview, the outgoing spy chief said much of his energy over his six-year tenure had been spent fending off attacks from Russia.

Mr Martin said: “In terms of the

Russian threat, it is not just a threat to democratic processes, it has been a threat to critical infrastructure.

“We have seen attacks and intrusions on energy systems.

“In my six-and-a-half years running cyber security, Russian has been the operational constant and taken up a huge amount of our time and resources.”