Online Is the New Frontline against Crime, according to U.K. Assessment

Today the U.K.’s National Crime Agency released its 2021 National Strategic Assessment of Serious and Organised Crime, sharing the national government’s understanding of threats posed by organized criminals. The report stresses that criminals have increasingly turned to online environments to commit crimes at scale and avoid detection, a trend exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The report focuses a significant amount of its attention on cyber threats in particular, especially ransomware. It notes that ransomware attacks increased in frequency and impact, resulting in an estimated £3 billion in estimated fraud losses for U.K. individuals and businesses (while acknowledging an accurate figure is constrained by significant under-reporting). And it notes that criminals are increasingly using the Dark Web to trade illegal commodities such as firearms and cryptocurrencies to facilitate money laundering. Read the report at the U.K. National Crime Agency.