The British government recently announced a major re-organisation of law enforcement bodies in England. Changes that will impact the way authorities tackle cybercrime. Whilst it’s true that cybercrime is an international problem, individual Governments need to ensure that they have a strong, coherent cybercrime strategy and taskforce in place to tackle the rising threat that internet fraudsters represent to homes and businesses.
Our July internet threat statistics, which have just been published, clearly demonstrate that now is not the time to neglect the fight against cybercrime (something which the recent policing green paper may indicate). The UK now produces around five per cent of the world’s viruses and spam, coming in fourth place in the top 10 worldwide hotspots. The United States still dominates the charts, producing over 14 per cent of viruses and 11 per cent of spam in the world.
If we compare the most recent statistics to January 2010, a few things become apparent:
- Brazil, responsible for 15 per cent of the world’s viruses in January, doesn’t feature in the top ten virus producers in July, and produces 2.7 per cent less spam than it did (it’s now responsible for 4.9 per cent).
- The UK, which was in neither the spam or virus charts in January, is now producing five per cent of the world’s spam and viruses.
- The US remains a top three virus and spam producer, increasing virus production by 3.4 per cent (to 14.6 per cent) and spam production by 1.4 per cent (to 11.4 per cent).
- India’s virus production has risen by six per cent (and is now 9.5 per cent) and spam production has risen by two per cent (to 8.7 per cent).
The figures show how dynamic the cybercrime ‘industry’ is. Often comprised of a global network of infected computers, employing people working alone or in small teams, these gangs can operate in a far more fluid way than legitimate organisations and will move their base of operations to less stringent jurisdictions if they feel threatened. This is why there needs to be an international solution to the problem, otherwise it will continue to get worse and we’re likely to see more countries being responsible for less malware as the cyber gangs spread around the world – making it harder for law enforcement to put out the fires.