Introduction

The development of the internet and digital technologies represent a major opportunity for the UK – transforming businesses and providing new tools for everyday communication. According to survey data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), 80 per cent of households in Great Britain had an internet connection in 2012, up from 77 per cent in 2011 (ONS, 2012a). Internet users are spending increasing amounts of time online and undertaking a greater range of online and social networking activities (Ofcom, 2012). In terms of business, online retail spending in 2012 accounted for around 10 per cent of all retail spend each month in Great Britain. The average weekly spend online was £586.6 million in July 2013 – an increase of almost 11 per cent compared with July 2012 (ONS, 2013a). The internet and online activities have now become central to the way people live their lives. However, the internet also presents opportunities to cyber criminals. The nature of some ‘traditional’ crime types has been transformed by the use of computers and other information communications technology (ICT) in terms of its scale and reach, with risks extending to many aspects of social life, such as:

• financial transactions;
• sexual offending;
• harassment and threatening behaviour; and
• commercial damage and disorder.

New forms of criminal activity have also been developed, targeting the integrity of computers and computer networks such as the spread of malware and hacking. Threats exist not just to individuals and businesses, but to national security and infrastructure. Furthermore, the borderless nature of cyber crime means that the UK can be targeted from jurisdictions across the world, making law enforcement particularly challenging. The cyber threat has been assigned a ‘Tier One’ threat status in the national security strategy (HMSO, 2010) – one of the highest priorities for action. To assist in tackling the cyber threat, £860 million of public funding was set aside as part of a five-year National Cyber Security Programme. The national cyber security strategy (Cabinet Office, 2011) sets out the key objectives that the Government intends to achieve by 2015 in relation to cyber security and cyber crime, to both tackle the threats and reap the benefits of cyberspace.

Additionally, in 2013 the new National Crime Agency (NCA) brought together specialist law enforcement capability into a National Cyber Crime Unit (NCCU) to address some of the most serious forms of cyber crime. The new Serious and Organised Crime Strategy, issued alongside the launch of the NCA, sets out the framework and direction for those tackling on serious and organised crimes, which can also include cyber crimes. It is critical for policy makers to have knowledge of the scale and nature of cyber crime, how it is changing over time and whether interventions to tackle the problem are having an impact. This will help to drive forward policy decisions with a sound evidence base in this area and is vital in the context of emerging forms of cyber crime and technological developments. This paper provides an overview of the current published evidence on the scale and nature of cyber crime in the UK – to identify what is known, where evidence is most reliable and where major gaps remain.

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Jessey
Managing Editor
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