British Police short of skills and resources to combat escalating cybercrime

Majority of the UK police forces are reportedly ill-equipped to combat the rapidly escalating and multi-billion-pound cyber-crime threats, stresses a new report, which also calls for an fundamental rethink about officers’ recruitment processes to address cyber crime.

A new study by police intelligence analysts noted that not more than a third of key officers had the required knowledge or technology to deal with threat anticipated to inflate over the upcoming three years.

The report added that police and agencies were moreover focused on defending their own sources than collaborating with each other to share intelligence and techniques to defy an anonymous, trans-regional adversary.

The report author Nick Newman told The Independent that more of the £650m allotted by the government to a National Cyber Security Program has to be invested on policing, as law enforcers are ‘nowhere near equipped’ address the threat.

Further, 25% of respondents were apparently shocked after they were told that a "snooper’s charter" bill was discarded earlier this year by the coalition as it was deemed to help strengthen police efforts to battle cybercrime.

Earlier, a study by KPMG revealed that 57% of British organisations were not able to retain highly skilled data security experts.