The Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) has announced that three new police hubs to tackle web crime are set to launch.
Every force in the UK has to deal with the impact of online crime, Home Office minister James Brokenshire has said. Image credit: Home Office
The hubs, which are in Yorkshire and the Humber, the north-west and east Midlands, will go live "imminently", with some officers undergoing training on Wednesday, a spokeswoman for Acpo told Guardian Government Computing.
The hubs, announced in November, will focus on online crime, with the exception of online child abuse, which is already covered by units that specialise in the area. The units will cost £30m over four years, according to Acpo.
The units will each initially comprise three staff members — a detective sergeant and two detective constables — and will work alongside the Metropolitan Police e-crime Unit (PCeU), which was established in October 2008 as part of the National e-Crime Programme. It will be the job of the regional hubs to provide extra capabilities for the e-crime unit's operations, according to the spokeswoman. Once the regional hub staff have been trained up, they could potentially take on their own investigations.
"The government has acknowledged a need to collaborate and provide a structured response to the cybersecurity of the UK, and these three additional policing units are going to play a critical role in our ability to combat the threat," said deputy assistant commissioner Janet Williams, who leads Acpo's e-crime team.
James Brokenshire, minister for crime and security, said cybercrime is a threat locally and nationally, and every force in the country has to deal with its impact on people and businesses in their area.
"As well as leading the fight in their regions, these units mark a significant step forward in developing a national response to cybercrime, which will be driven by the new National Crime Agency," he added.
The coalition government's national security strategy, published in 2010, listed web security as one of its priorities.
In 2011, the government said it will provide funding of £650m to tackle online crime, while its cybersecurity strategy released in November outlined a series of plans to set up a web security hub to pool information with the private sector.
The government has also vowed to deal with its own shortage of specialist web security staff.
This story originally appeared on Guardian Government Computing.
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Talkback
Nine people? £30m? Who's back pocket is that lot going in?
And IF they say it is for new buildings, what about all the ones the government has already built using PFI that are standing unused and we, the taxpayer, are going to have to rent under contract for the next 25 years at least?