The City of London police force is planning to recruit IT graduates straight out of university to help it tackle the growing rise of cybercrime in the Square Mile, according to reports.
The force’s head of cyber, Peter O’Doherty, told The Telegraph that the initiative would start with a trial run of around five or six students next year.
“Cybercrime is the most significant growing threat in this country,” he told the paper. “Cyber-detectives wouldn’t help the issue of under-reporting but would provide the capability to investigate cybercrime more efficiently than we do now.”
Europol director, Rob Wainright, warned last year that cyber-attacks now threaten critical parts of the financial sector, especially through ransomware.
Although the financial services industry spent an estimated $360 billion on IT in 2016, and three times more on cybersecurity than other sectors, it has been hidebound by a lack of willingness on the part of individual businesses to co-operate with each other, a KPMG report claimed recently.
What’s more 90% of UK IT security pros working in financial services polled by VMware recently admitted they have had to make compromises that could leave parts of the business exposed, while half (51%) said they do this regularly.
Ilia Kolochenko, CEO of web security firm High-Tech Bridge, welcomed the City of London police initiative.
“This is a great news reaffirming the UK’s cybersecurity leadership in Europe. Many EU countries cannot afford even the fundamental resources and people to investigate and prosecute cybercrime. The UK gives a laudable example everyone should follow,” he added.
“However, we should not forget that cybercrime investigation is first of all based on practical experience, not on a university degree. Thus, retaining experienced professionals will likely be quite costly as large companies are ready to pay them very competitive salaries. Retention of talent will be a challenge.”
The news comes days after the same force launched a new bid to share threat intelligence and best practice cyber-advice with businesses in the City. The Cyber Griffin community policing initiative is designed to help business executives and IT professionals.