We’ve ALL been hacked
... and cyber criminals have sold your details, warns police chief
Chief Constable Peter Goodman issued the warning over rampant computer hacking as he urged firms to come clean to customers when their security has been compromised.
Mr Goodman, who leads the National Police Chiefs’ Council on cyber crime, revealed he has been personally targeted three times by thieves who stole his name, date of birth, address and email. Russia is the worst culprit, he said, bombarding the UK with ‘state-sponsored’ or ‘state-permitted’ criminal attacks on a daily basis.
This week Theresa May accused the Kremlin of cyber espionage and meddling in elections. And now the UK’s top policing experts on cyber crime have said Russian groups were targeting not only our major infrastructure and financial institutions, but also small businesses such as hairdressers in its giant ‘fishing net’ for data.
Mr Goodman, the Derbyshire police chief, told a media briefing: ‘I can almost guarantee that every single one of you around this table has had a data breach against you and that some of your personal data is held somewhere on the dark web and is being sold, traded – are you happy with that? And you probably don’t know about it.’ Asked if he believed almost every person in Britain had been a victim, he said: ‘Yes. There are certain websites you can go to where you can do a search and find out if your data has been stolen. But unless you actively look for it, then you never get told.’
The daily attacks are costing billions a year, but Mr Goodman admitted police have been slow to respond and victims face a ‘postcode lottery’ over whether crimes will be investigated. Online fraud is now the most common crime in the country, with more than 5.5million cyber and fraud offences taking place each year. Oliver Gower, head of the National Cyber Crime Unit (NCCU), warned the scale of fraud from stolen bank details was now so vast that banks will soon have to stop refunding affected customers because they can no longer tolerate the losses.
Hacking has become hugely profitable – nearly half of UK businesses suffered a cyber breach or attack in the last year, while in May the NHS was crippled by the ‘WannaCry’ hack. The NCCU and regional police units are working together to disrupt attacks and more than 200 people have been arrested in the last year, including ‘medium to high ranking’ players in Russian and Eastern European networks.
Yesterday police called for mandatory cyber security on consumer goods after a huge rise in internet-connected domestic products – including TVs, fridges and even kettles. Mr Goodman said it shouldn’t be up to customers to pay more for security.