People in Lancashire urged to get cyber smart as concerns raised
Lancashire's Police and Crime Commissioner says the future of crime is online
Lancashire's Police and Crime Commissioner is urging people and businesses across the county to get better prepared for cyber crime.
It comes as Cabinet Office minister Oliver Dowden warned that the "cyber equivalent of the Wagner group" posed a serious threat to the UK, as he announced that the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) was issuing an "official threat notice" to operators of critical national infrastructure amid concerns about the growing cyber threat.
The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, as he made the comparison to the private Russian military company, announced plans for more ambitious cyber resilience targets for all critical national infrastructure sectors to meet by 2025, as well as moves to bring private sector businesses working on critical infrastructure into the scope of resilience regulations.
Andrew Snowden is Lancashire's Police and Crime Commissioner and recently became head of the North West's Cyber Resilience Centre.
He told us:
"We all know that criminals are increasingly shifting their operations to the cyber and digital worlds to commit their offences and to pray on vulnerable people. That's why we're making significant investment at Lancashire Police.
"We're rolling out more officers who are capable of detecting and convicting people of crimes in the cyber world, such as fraud, hacks and phishing and we're helping people learn how they can keep themselves safe.
"I wan to make sure that investment in supporting businesses and charities in being more resilient to cyber attacks is rolled out as effectively as possible and businesses are prevented from becoming victims of crime.
Lindy Cameron, who heads up the GCHQ arm, said:
"I don't think we are yet doing enough to protect our infrastructure from the cyber threats emerging from Russia-aligning groups."
She told an audience in Belfast:
"If the UK is to be the safest place to live and work online, then resilience must urgently move to the top of our investment shopping list."
She said that there needs to be "resilience to all threats, whether they come from nation states or cyber criminals".
It comes as she echoed the language of the Government's recent integrated review refresh, referencing the rise of China as a technology power and the "epoch-defining" challenge it poses to the West.
Mr Dowden did not focus on China in his address, instead using it to stress the need for the Government and businesses to take seriously cyber security.
"Ransomware is no longer just a crime, it is a national security threat," he told the audience as he stressed the key role cyber officials were playing in protecting British democracy.
The senior minister compared global interest to the visible presence of an alleged Chinese sky balloon floating over US airspace to the less well-known threats to UK cyber security that "silently and invisibly breach our digital defence, both in the UK and the rest of the world".