2019-10-23 Review of Cybercrime Prevention
Review - Cyber Crime Prevention - Cyber Threats, Vulnerabilities and Career Opportunities
Presentation on Wednesday 23 October, 1.00-3.00pm, Room D102 (STEM Building)
Arranged by the CST School’s BCS Student Chapter / Beds Computing SU Society
Speakers:
Stephanie Frankish, ERSOU (Eastern Region Special Operations Unit)
Sean O’Neil, Cyber Security Consultant for Bedfordshire Police
Cyber-crime is an ever-increasing threat within the UK. Cyber-crime is
estimated to be costing the UK economy billions of pounds per year, and the
costs to individuals and businesses are often staggering.
There are over 1 million victims of cyber-crime each day, but GCHQ believes that 80% of cyber-crime is easily preventable.
60% of small companies are unable to sustain their businesses over 6 months after a cyber attack “There was nothing I could do, I was powerless and they knew it. We’d only started the business two years ago, there was no way to pull it back” - Matt
The Cyber Choices input will raise awareness of the computer misuse act 1990,
with up to date and relevant examples of people who have been convicted under
the different sections of this act. Cyber prevent officers, who deliver the
Cyber Choices programme, work a lot with the cyber security industry to gain
valuable insight into what it takes to be successful in this profession. This
will include valuable tips on where to go to practice your skills legally and
safely to become the next generation of cyber security professionals ie.
pentesters, ethical hackers, web developers, digital forensic examiners etc.
This will give a good insight into cyber security career pathways and at the
vast number of opportunities available in this field for well-qualified
graduates.
Prior to starting her role with Cyber Prevent team from the Eastern Region Special Operations Unit in September 2017, Stephanie Frankish studied criminology with sociology and has worked in the police within prevention for the past 5-6 years. Starting with general crime prevention, onto counter terrorism prevent and now into cyber.
One of the roles of the Regional Cyber Crime Prevent team (of the Eastern
Region Special Operations Unit) is to provide both potential victims and
perpetrators with a sound understanding of the Computer Misuse Act and the
impact of its infringement. Stephanie explained how an individual can avoid
becoming yet another statistic in this list of cybercrimes. What steps can be
taken? She also looked at cyber security career pathways and at the vast
number of opportunities available in this field for well-qualified graduates.
Stephanie would be happy to speak about their pathways more and to answer any questions you may have on this or around the Cyber Choices messaging.
Sean O’Neil, Cyber Security Consultant for Bedfordshire Police, then led an informative and lively discussion around current threats - giving examples of recent cases that have caused loss to businesses and individuals.
Sean has extensive law enforcement experience having served for 30 years in UK Police service. As a Senior Investigating Officer (SIO) he is experienced in dealing with critical incidents affecting organisational reputation - including extortion, product contamination, and large-scale frauds.
Sean undertook a regional loss prevention, security and investigations manager role for a large ecommerce company heading investigations into organised crime attacks on the company. In this role, he investigated large-scale counterfeit allegations and high end cyber enabled crime such as fraud.
Sean now provides cyber security and anti-fraud advice direct to businesses. The presentation considered how fraudsters prepare to steal your money, and how effective are the banks and Police in coping with the rising number of incidents of cyber-crime. What are the 5 basic steps every business should take to reduce vulnerability to cyber-crime?
The talk was well attended and many questions came from the enthusiastic audience both during and after the presentations. We were pleased to welcome to the session seven Year 12 pupils and their teacher from Freman Upper School and Sixth Form College. It is hoped that this talk will be followed up by a visit by the CST School’s students to Bedfordshire Police’s Cyber Crime Hub’s laboratories at the Kempston HQ to see how actual forensic cases are handled.
Both Stephanie and Sean have provided copies of their comprehensive presentations and an information pack which will be made available to participants and will also uploaded to BREO.
This event was organised by the CST School, the CST School’s BCS Student Chapter / Beds Computing SU Society in collaboration with the Careers and Employability team.