Cybercrime bigger threat to London than drugs - police

Security industry backs police chief's claims that cybercriminals are getting more sophisticated

Cybercriminals are becoming so advanced, they pose a bigger threat to London than the drugs trade does, according to the city's police chief.

During a presentation at a TechUK event, the City of London's police commissioner Adrian Leppard said the police are struggling to get on top of cybercrime due to lack of resources.

He claimed that 80 per cent of cybercrimes go unreported and of the 20 per cent which do, only one in five receive a "proper" response from law-enforcement agencies, according to the London Evening Standard.

Security vendor LogRhythm agreed with Leppard and said the technology channel, not just the authorities, need to do more to tackle cybercrime.

"What Adrian Leppard has said rings very true for those of us working to tackle cybercrime at the front line," said Ross Brewer, the vendor's managing director for international markets.

"While his comments mainly call for a change in the way the authorities deal with the investigation of threats, organisations themselves should also take heed of his warnings. Cybercriminals don't care about a couple of firewalls or other point security solutions – they can, and will, easily get past them. Attempting to prevent a breach has therefore become relatively futile, and instead focus needs to be placed on identifying and dealing with threats as quickly as possible."

He added that acting quickly is key in responding to cyberattacks.

"The cyber landscape has become incredibly treacherous and requires a dedicated and long-term strategy to safely navigate," he said. "By reducing the amount of time it takes to detect and respond to the breaches, businesses have a far greater chance of containing any damage. We need to make everyone aware of the fact that the time between detection and response is when they are at their most vulnerable, and without a strategy in place to effectively and efficiently deal with the problem, the consequences could be far reaching."