Lockdown ’helps fuel rise in cybercrime’

Take extra care before buying face masks or testing kits online, or responding to texts apparently sent to you by the UK government or the NHS. Because while lockdown has helped reduce the spread of the coronavirus, it is also helping fuel a rise in cybercrime. Anxiety over serious economic problems - such as job losses and business closures - may be prompting some people to step up existing harmful online activity as a means of generating income Ben Collier That's the warning from a team of researchers including Dr Ben Collier from the Cambridge Cybercrime Centre , part of Cambridge's  Department of Computer Science and Technology. The researchers have been analysing data collected by the Centre from underground forums, chat channels and marketplaces used by cybercrime communities. And in a briefing paper they have just written for Police Scotland, they say it indicates that the social changes put in place in response to the coronavirus pandemic "have stimulated.. the cybercrime economy." Some of the cybercrimes taking place are new. For example, early in the lockdown, some scammers sent fake texts, purporting to come from HM Revenue & Customs, telling recipients they were going to be fined £250 for leaving their homes more than once a day.