City of London Police launch anti-cyber crime initiative

Cyber Griffin will see specially-trained officers lead a series of community focused exercises which will include threat briefings, incident response training and more. The initiative is targeted at businesses within the City and aims to reach those with very little knowledge of cyber-enabled crime threats, all the way up to individuals who hold IT security and risk roles.

As cyber crime increases and more online attacks are launched on UK businesses than ever before, officers in the force’s Cyber Crime Unit felt a community-based approach to tackling the problem was needed. 

City of London Police Commissioner and National Policing Lead for Economic Crime, Ian Dyson, said: “As criminals working in the cyberspace become more sophisticated, it’s important we all have at least basic skills to combat those that seek to do us harm. 

“Through this initiative the police and industry can work together to share skills and knowledge to protect ourselves from this evolving crime”

Cyber Griffin will be based around three key deliverables with the first being updates and threat briefings. Free-of-charge threat briefings will be designed to build basic defender skills in key areas with individuals from all levels of business welcome to attend. The events will provide officers with the opportunity to deliver the latest updates in intelligence and members of the business community to network with each other and share their experiences. 

The second deliverable is Incident response exercises, which will see officers deliver three different levels of incident response, all of which will provide an invaluable insight into police decision making. The exercises will cover a basic response right up to an expert response played out in real-time for more senior members of business.

The final deliverable is creating advisory groups, which will be made up of a wide-range of experts, from industry and the private sector, capable of providing valuable insight to less experienced members of the business community. Police officers will carefully select people from businesses with dedicated threat intelligence and experience in cyber security to act as a problem-solving group for other businesses with none. 

Sergeant Charlie Morrison who will lead the Cyber Griffin delivery team said:  “Although cyber criminality challenges traditional policing as we know it, we are now more capable than ever to tackle the problem. However, it’s imperative we work with our local community to do this, especially in such a unique area as the City of London which is full of businesses who have the potential to be the target for a cyber attack.

“Cyber criminals specialise in looking for the weak spots in our security. Cyber Griffin therefore is about basics done well. Through briefings, incident response drills and expert guidance, the aim is to get the fundamentals right every time. In this case the best offence is a good defence.”