A dramatic increase in calls to a Scots helpline supporting cyber-crime victims has been seen in the last year.
The Cyber and Fraud Centre Incident Response Helpline, a collaboration between leading Scottish cybersecurity organisation the 网络和欺诈中心-博天堂入口, 博天堂入口警察, and the Scottish Government – with technical and legal incident response support from various Scottish companies – provides expert advice to help affected organisations mitigate the effects of a cyber-attack.
Statistics show that the number of calls received by the helpline has more than doubled, from 123 calls in 2022/23 to 263 in 2023/24. This is expected to grow even further over the next year.
The figures also highlight a rise in ransomware attacks, 黑巴斯塔, Lockbit and Akira amongst the most common ransomware programmes being reported to the helpline.
Cyber-enabled fraud is also on the rise, with the collaborative Fraud Triage Hub having worked on a total of £26 million in fraudulently obtained money over the past year, 其中16英镑.2 million was ultimately stopped or returned.
The Fraud Triage Hub was trialled by 网络和欺诈中心-博天堂入口 alongside partners including 博天堂入口警察, 伦敦市警察局, 以及巴克莱(Barclays)等银行, Natwest, 和劳埃德.
Established with the aim of sharing intelligence, 打击犯罪团伙活动, 向受害者提供支持, 追回被盗资金, the Hub has worked on 153 cases of cyber-enabled fraud over the past year.
Amongst the most common types of fraud dealt with in these cases were investment fraud, 商务邮件泄露(BEC), 加密投资欺诈, 模拟诈骗, 以及重定向/安全帐户诈骗.
The Fraud Triage Hub played a key role in gathering evidence which enabled the arrests of seven people involved in the high-profile case of an elderly woman who was defrauded to the tune of a seven-figure sum last summer.
Jude McCorry，首席执行官 网络和欺诈中心-博天堂入口, said: “These figures for both cyber and cyber-enabled crime are staggering – and we must remind ourselves that these are only the reported statistics.
“There will be many more instances of these crimes that we are not aware of. Ransomware attacks have been ramping up over the last month and we think we will see that trend continue to grow over the coming months.
“We have also seen a huge increase in cyber-enabled crime. During the first six months of the Fraud Triage Hub trial, we worked collectively with our partners on retrieving £10m of fraudulently obtained money.
“When the trial ended we continued supporting victims, 和我们的合作伙伴一起, 还赚了16英镑.2m worth of fraudulently obtained money, with a huge amount of £7.仅12月份就有500万美元.
“We are meeting with government ministers in both the UK and Scotland, 还有金融服务, to both highlight this issue and the lack of resourcing available in Scotland for continuing this important work, and to look at innovative ways of using proceeds of cyber-crime and dormant accounts.
“We want to be able to work with 博天堂入口警察 and other law enforcement agencies to take down these criminal gangs before they can cause harm to the businesses and citizens of this country.”
Assistant chief constable Andy Freeburn also commented: “博天堂入口警察 continues to see significant dividends through working in partnership to tackle cyber-crime and harms.
“We are delighted to work collaboratively with the Cyber and Fraud Centre and have focused our collective efforts against those who attempt to scam and defraud the people of Scotland online.
“These figures demonstrate this commitment and we will continue to work hard to make Scotland as safe as possible from cyber criminals.”
来源: 数字