The March 2021 print edition of Professional Security magazine has a ‘looking ahead’ theme, about life and work after the worst of the coronavirus pandemic; how it will affect security done in various sectors such as hotels and hospitality; technology; and crimes. For all along since first lockdown in March 2020, crime has carried on regardless of covid, notably in volume terms frauds online, even as police hail falls in recorded crime (keeping largely silent about fraud, though it’s the UK’s number one crime by volume). Here’s a round-up of crime.
In 2020, firearms activity remained broadly stable in comparison to previous years, and saw a slight decrease on 2019, according to the National Crime Agency. Some lawfully-held firearms, such as shotguns, are stolen for criminal use. Theft of shotguns declined in 2020, almost certainly due to covid-19 restrictions on movement. Shotguns are typically stolen from license holders in rural areas and used by criminals in urban areas. While such thefts may be targeted, most arise from opportunistic burglary, say police.
Investment scams
The regulator Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is warning the public of ‘clone firm’ scams. Fake firms set up by scammers use the name, address and ‘Firm Reference Number’ (FRN) of real companies authorised by the FCA. Fraudsters send sales materials linking to websites of legitimate firms to dupe potential investors into thinking they are the real firm. Mark Steward, Executive Director of Enforcement and Market Oversight at the FCA, said it had issued alerts about 1100 firms including clones; that’s more than doubled since 2019.
Piracy at sea
Pirates in the Gulf of Guinea are carrying out more attacks, and further from the coast of west Africa, says the International Chamber of Commerce’s International Maritime Bureau (IMB). Michael Howlett, IMB Director, said: “This is a worrying trend that can only be resolved through increased information exchange and coordination between vessels, reporting and response agencies in the Gulf of Guinea region. Despite prompt action by navies in the region, there remains an urgent need to address this crime, which continues to have a direct impact on the safety and security of innocent seafarers.” However the IMB received zero reports of Somalia piracy last year.
County lines
It’s not new that city-based drug-dealing groups have gone into new, ‘county lines’ markets, bringing inner-city crime to small towns. For example, the Suffolk Police and Crime Commissioner, Tim Passmore has spoken of ‘increased focus on organised crime groups, violence and county lines and illegal drug use’ from last year, that has produced ‘some stellar results’. Instead of bringing in young runners from Merseyside and Manchester, it’s believed gangs are now grooming vulnerable youngsters in care home to sell heroin and cocaine in North Wales. Gangs can recruit children without even meeting them by having peers recruit them, and controlling them via social network apps.
For British Transport Police (BTP) December 2020 marked one year on from the start of the force’s county lines taskforce. BTP say that county lines gangs who use the railway rely on children, typically aged in their mid-teens. These children are often vulnerable and often victims of exploitation by older men and women who first lure them in with promises of money and status, then use acts or threats of violence to make sure they cannot leave. They are then sent to far away areas with large amounts of cash ranging from £1,000 to £5,000 and Class A drugs – the amount of money they carry is comparatively small to the amounts held by their controllers.
Visit www.childrenssociety.org.uk/lookcloser. If you’re a parent or carer looking for advice, or a professional in need of guidance you can call the NSPCC charity on 0808 800 5000.
Counterfeits
Covid has affected companies’ supply chains, trade and vulnerabilities that allow opportunities for illicit traders to move contraband, says ICC’s Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy (BASCAP) in a recent report. The pandemic overwhelmed global business and to date has created the most substantial negative supply chain security effect in history, says the paper ‘Controlling the zone: Balancing facilitation and control to combat illicit trade in the world’s Free Trade Zones’ (FTZs).
BASCAP notes that the very reason that FTZs are so popular, the relaxation of regulations and oversight of operations, has also made them attractive to criminal networks and those involved in manufacture, packaging and distribution of counterfeit goods. It says: “The lack of genuine products and supplier disruption has been devastating to legitimate businesses, with declining supply chains, and reduced production to adjust to decreasing supplies. High demand and declining supply chains have caused reductions in maritime imports and exports and at least at the onset of the pandemic, the demand for maritime shipping dwindled due to the shortage of goods and products. The pandemic provided more opportunities for criminal elements who sought to take advantage of the rise in demand and subsequent shortages of many parts and products, as well as it notably relaxed Customs examinations and inspections due to quarantine requirements and to facilitate existing trade. These massive disruptions from the pandemic magnified existing FTZ vulnerabilities.”
Waste crime
A Joint Unit for Waste Crime (JUWC) was one year old in January 2021. Nicola Lawton, JUWC Deputy Director for Enforcement, said: “The JUWC is crucial to our fight against serious and organised waste crime, and despite the Covid-19 pandemic we have continued to target and disrupt the criminal networks who are undermining the waste industry and the environment. In the last year we have conducted numerous multi-agency operations against groups and individuals who are causing serious harm, and the Unit is now leading over 20 operations into offending that spans the UK and involves not only waste crime but other criminal activities including firearms, drugs, vehicle theft and money laundering.”
Credential stuffing
Credential stuffing involves the exploitation of volumes of compromised username and/or email and password pairs. A Private Industry Notification issued by the FBI last year warned that the threat accounted for the greatest volume of security incidents against the US financial sector between 2017 and 2020.
Sara Boddy, Senior Director of cyber firm F5 Labs says: “Attackers have been collecting billions of credentials for years. Credential spills are like an oil spill, once leaked, they are very hard to clean up because credentials do not get changed by unassuming consumers, and credential stuffing solutions are yet to be widely adopted by enterprises. It is not surprising that during this period of research, we saw a shift in the number one attack type from HTTP attacks to credential stuffing. This attack type has a long-term impact on the security of applications and is not going to change any time soon. If you are worried about getting hacked, it’s most likely going to occur from a credential stuffing attack.”
Visit: https://www.f5.com/labs/articles/threat-intelligence/2021-credential-stuffing-report.
Website hacking
The dark web shows a consistently high demand for access to online store sites, with prices ranging between $50 and $2,000, says the information security firm Positive Technologies. When paying for goods, users enter their credit card details. Thus, attackers have opportunities to inject malicious JavaScript code into these websites to intercept the information entered by the user and use it for their personal gain. Another way attackers cash in on users is by obtaining privileged access to online stores, which then allows them to place orders using other people’s payment cards, or not pay at all.
