Cybercrime, the Scottish Perspective - C@SS Conference

Stephen Wilson, Detective Superintendent, Police Scotland
(Live capture of session)
Government rate cybercrime and cyberterrorism as a tier 1 threat, up,there with major national disasters and international military conflicts.

What does cybercrime mean? Two aspects: old crimes "enhanced" by the Internet (e.g. theft, fraud, extortion and child abuse); new crimes created by the Internet (e.g. Ddos and malware). There are regular attracts on Scottish businesses. It used to be that organised crime had to be based near their victims but not now, so Russian groups and other nationalities are targeting Scottish people.

Mikko Hypponen on TED Talk: you are more likely to be a victim of crime online than in the real world.

Growth in ransomware (e.g. the heartbleed virus). But cyber attacks are not always about the money. There is state sponsored attacks as well as hacked sits are a growing threat. We need to educate people about basic safety. Problems with social networking, for example cyber-blackmailing or cyber-bullying which has led to suicides.

Hacktivism: question was asked, what are we doing wrong that people with outstanding computing skills would rather cause chaos and get involved in crime rather than use their skills in well-paid employment.

Crime as a service: people selling credit card details, or offering Denial of Service attacks et. As a service you can buy.

The police know they need highly trained and computer skilled people coming into the police, or partnering with them, to tackle these problems. But Stephen thinks we need to start educating children from primary up to take care of their own personal cyber safety. We need to encourage young people to move into tertiary education to study and research cyber security issues. There is an opportunity to grow cyber security as a business in Scotland.

As people spend more time in the virtual world, the police need to work to promote safer virtual communities. Does cyber security have enough prominence in school curriculum. Can pupils go and help parents and grandparents to be safer online?

Location:Colinton Road,Edinburgh,United Kingdom