Graeme Biggar made the statement as part of his first public speech as director general and the launch of the NCA’s National Strategic Assessment, which identifies some of the top criminal threats facing the UK. 

Along with child abuse, drug use, and organised immigration, Biggar stressed the “emerging links” between organised crime groups and nation states operations in the cyberspace. 

“The Russian state has long tolerated and occasionally tasked the cyber crime groups on its territory, and had links with its oligarchs and their enablers. But over the last year we have begun to see hostile states beginning to use organised crime groups – not always of the same nationality – as proxies,” said Biggar.

According to the NCA, cybercrime made up a large proportion of reported crime last year, with 41% of all total victims in 2022 being targeted by fraud alone. 

“The internet has enabled fraud to be undertaken at scale, anonymously, and from overseas. We assess that 75% of fraud is partially or fully committed from overseas,” Biggar said. 

He also stressed the role artificial intelligence is playing in the growing threat of fraud. For this reason, Acronis’ Mid-Year Cyber Threats Report found that email attacks have surged 464% compared to the first half of 2022.

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Along with AI, Biggar blamed cybercrime marketplaces for proliferating fraud and ransomware methods for amateur criminals. According to data cited by Biggar, 84% of ransomware incident reports to Action Fraud in the 2021-2022 financial year were made by organisations.

“The impact of such attacks can be significant but the solution can be simple: basic cybersecurity will defeat most attacks and it is important all organisations invest in it,” said Biggar.

Biggar pointed to a refreshed focus to addressing criminal threats going forward. This approach focuses: 

• Upstream, dismantling those at the top of the criminal chain.
• Overseas, to tackle threats at the source.
• Online, to combat the growing number of criminals active there.