NCSC Stopped One Million Criminal Frauds
Britain's cyber defence centre has thwarted more than one million cases of suspected payment card fraud in the last year, its annual review reveals. The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) said a dedicated anti-fraud effort stopped the cards being abused. It also claimed to have stopped more than 1,800 cyber-attacks aimed at UK citizens and businesses in its first three years.More than 650 cyber plots designed to wreak havoc across the country were foiled last year, the intelligence services have revealed. Hostile foreign states, criminals and activists were behind attempts to crash vital public services, businesses and university systems.
Hostile nation states were behind a "significant" number of the incidents it tackled, it added.
The figures were revealed in a report which sets out how the NCSC acts to protect the public. In the last year it said it had run Operation Haulster that sought to uncover which payment cards were being targeted by online fraudsters. The operation told banks about potential targets so they could prevent future attacks or spot when cards were being abused.
Experts at the NCSC also saw off fraudsters holding more than one million stolen credit cards. Cabinet Office minister Oliver Dowden said the UK had become “safer” since the off-shoot of GCHQ was created three years ago to tackle online threats.
Alongside the anti-fraud action there was more sophisticated work to stymie attacks by hackers sponsored by hostile nation states or acting as proxies for them. "We can say that Russia, China, Iran and North Korea continue to pose strategic national security threats to the UK, but we can't often talk about the operational successes,"the NCSC Chief Ciaran Martin told reporters.
The review reveals other work carried out by the NCSC, which includes:
- Speeding up the sharing of information about active threats
- Actively tackling malicious websites set up for phishing campaigns
- Advising to political parties to help them keep data protected
The NCSC was set up in 2016 as part of a £1.9bn national cyber security strategy. It acts as a central body overseeing cyber-security in the UK and also has a role in advising businesses on the best way to stay safe online.
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