How to reduce fraud: cooperation and a dedicated strategy

How do you become a better criminal? As in, how do you get better at crime (as opposed to turn to the Good Side)? A maxim throughout the realm of organised crime: you get better results if various stakeholders engage with each other in an unrestrained manner, without political strategy and organisational culture getting in the way.And so it is true when it comes to security.The Royal United Services Institute’s (RUSI) – the world’s oldest defence and security think tank – latest assessment of the current response to cyber fraud is a case in point. It flags significant areas of incoherence across the landscape with silos between policing and industry exacerbating issues. A white paper, published last month, The UK’s Response to Cyber Fraud: A Strategic Vision, examines the causes behind these fractures and offers practical, policy-based solutions. And we’ve read it so you don’t have to.Vacuum cleanerIn terms of the scale of the issue, one recent study from the University of Portsmouth estimated that fraud, the majority of which is committed via the internet, costs the UK around £190 billion a year. Former national coordinator for policing economic crime, Stephen Head, who was involved in the research, said criminals and state actors have used the power of the internet to industrialise fraud: “The near endemic nature of cyber fraud cannot be left unchecked with all the risks of damaging lives and undermining UK prosperity.“Cyber fraud has not received the appropriate level of coordinated response. Responsibilities for tackling the issue are unclear, creating a sizable leadership vacuum at policy level.“This paper calls for a coherent response, better cooperation, sharing of intelligence and the need to support victims. Law enforcement, business and individuals must work more closely together to prevent harm and actively pursue and hold to account cyber criminals.”I can’t see clearly nowThere is a worrying lack of clarity regarding the definition, understanding and measurement of cyber fraud as well as significant differences in the way incidents are defined and recorded between financial institutions, law enforcement agencies and the cyber security sector.For most law enforcement agencies, fraud is not always considered a high priority compared with violent or drug-related crimes due to its less visible and less physically harmful nature, the report argues that this has a detrimental impact on funding as well as leading to “inefficient information sharing between law enforcement agencies and financial institutions. Despite numerous information-sharing partnerships and industry forums, significant limitations remain in the processes used to share information and in the quality of data that is provided”.The answers: RUSI recommendsTo the victors the prize: law enforcement agencies should consistently acknowledge the role of companies involved in cooperative takedowns of cybercriminal infrastructure.This will foster goodwill between the parties and increase long-term cooperation; agreements between agencies such as Europol and companies such as Microsoft can only be beneficial. We are all police: the National Crime Agency, in consultation with the Information Commissioners’ Office, should publish comprehensive guidance for private sector organisations on how they can lawfully assist law enforcement in preventing and investigating cyber fraud through information sharing.Detailed parameters around what can be shared can only help public-private sector cooperation, many an investigation has faltered due to parties being unsure what data they can release without risking a lawsuit. But, the willingness to do so is another matter entirely.Education for all: a large-scale national secondment programme for staff of financial institutions and cyber threat intelligence companies to equip police forces with improved skills in investigating cyber fraud.A gem of an idea. Policing has embraced the secondment process internally with moves to agencies such as the Home Office and the NCA commonplace. An extension of this into the cybersecurity industry would aid closer cooperation and join the separate entities together, forming a united front in tackling fraud.Currently, the government is reviewing these recommendations, all of which would make a significant difference in the fight against fraud. But business has a responsibility in both generating answers to problems and raising the profile and importance of such measures. Otherwise good ideas will simply disappear.

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How to reduce fraud: cooperation and a dedicated strategy

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How to reduce fraud: cooperation and a dedicated strategy

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