Cybercrime Website For Businesses Launches

The PSNI have today launched a new website allowing businesses to report cybercrime.

The site, psni.police.uk, is solely for the business community and is accessible via a link on the website.

Business users will be directed from the cybercrime icon to an online reporting facility where they can provide details of an incident or their concerns. If it is the report of a crime, the report will be assessed by police and appropriate action taken. If it relates to a concern about general online activity affecting a business, then police will use the report to inform their overall knowledge and understanding of cybercrime issues and their responses to them.

Detective Chief Inspector Douglas Grant, from Organised Crime Branch, said: "Through engagement with the business community in forums such as those provided by the Organised Crime Task Force, we identified a desire from companies to be able to report cybercrime online.

"This trial facility will allow the business community to make reports quickly and discretely so that police can respond accordingly. We would encourage reports about computer malware, ransom ware, network intrusion, denial of service attacks and anything which is posing a threat or causing concern to businesses.

"This is a growing area of criminal activity and it is important that police are aware of it so that we can prevent and detect crime. At present, it is difficult to be precise about the full extent of the problem. However there are indications that it is increasing."

The police has said that private individuals should continue to report online criminal activity to police in person or by phone or, if it relates to fraud, to Action Fraud.