A record number of online scams were removed from the internet
last year thanks to the nation’s cyber experts significantly
expanding the UK’s defences to push back against fraudsters, it
has been revealed today (Tuesday).
Ahead of the opening of its flagship CYBERUK conference, the
National Cyber Security Centre - a part of GCHQ – disclosed that
more than 2.7 million scam campaigns were stamped out in 2021,
nearly four times more than in 2020.
The rise reflects the expansion of NCSC services to take down
additional malicious online content, such as fake celebrity
endorsement scams, rather than an increase in scams overall. The
work has been complemented by reports from the public of
suspicious emails, texts and websites, which have enabled the
NCSC to remove even more scams.
The celebrity scams and bogus extortion emails were the most
commonly removed but other themes used by scammers included NHS
vaccines and vaccine passports and even in one instance
impersonating the CEO of the NCSC .
The findings represent some of the highlights in 2021 of the
NCSC’s Active Cyber Defence
programme, a pioneering initiative which prevents millions of
cyber attacks from reaching UK citizens, critical infrastructure
providers and organisations every year.
The highlights will be discussed at the NCSC’s CYBERUK conference
which starts today at the ICC in Wales – the first in-person
gathering of the event in three years. Other issues likely to
feature heavily on the conference agenda are the international
cyber security response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the
ongoing threat from ransomware.
, CEO of the NCSC
said,
“As we kick off CYBERUK, the latest ACD figures shine a light on
how the NCSC has responded to emerging cyber threat trends and
security issues to keep the UK safe at scale.
“We know that scammers will go to great lengths and indeed my
name has been used to try to trick people, but as we continue to
expand our defences we can see the tangible impact this is
having.
“I look forward to discussing common approaches to boosting cyber
resilience in the coming days at CYBERUK as we explore how to
drive forward a whole-of-society approach to cyber security.”
Dr , NCSC Technical Director,
said:
“Over the past five years, our Active Cyber Defence programme has
been central to preventing millions of cyber attacks from causing
harm to the UK.
“The highlights shared today evidence some of the crucial
interventions we made last year to take down online threats,
deter attackers and improve our collective cyber resilience. We
will publish the full annual report on our website in due course.
“As ACD continues to grow and innovate, we strongly encourage the
private sector to work even more closely with us to enhance the
effectiveness of our services to take down and block malicious
websites.”
In 2021, the ACD programme continued to help the UK stay safe
online during the COVID-19 pandemic while boosting the country’s
collective cyber resilience.
The NCSC removed more than 1,400 NHS-themed phishing campaigns
last year – an 11-fold increase on 2020 – as scammers tried to
trick people with fake messages about the vaccine rollout and
certificates.
Meanwhile, in one scam taken down, a scammer claiming to be NCSC
CEO sent an email informing the
recipient that the NCSC had stopped £5 million of their money
being stolen and to get the funds back they were required to
reply with personal information.
The overall increase in scam removals was largely due to the
Takedown Service expanding to take down additional types of
malicious online content over a prolonged period of time.
Alongside the removal of malicious online content, other key
highlights from the fifth year of ACD’s operations include:
- More than 1.2 million domains linked with the Android malware
Flubot were blocked – this malware was distributed to the
public via ‘missed delivery’ scams
- 33 million events were flagged to organisations signed up to
our Early Warning
service, indicating something potentially malicious or
vulnerable was on their systems. The service grew to more than
4,600 customers by the end of 2021.
- A milestone 10,000 users around the world was reached for the
Exercise in a Box
toolkit – a service which helps organisations practise
their response to a cyber incident.
Fostering a ‘whole-of-society approach’ to cyber security is a
central theme of this year’s CYBERUK being delivered across a
range of panels, sessions and interactive workshops.
More than 1,500 attendees from industry, academia and government
are set to participate in the first in-person summit since the
pandemic where the community will share their expertise and
experiences, and hear from leading cyber experts from around the
world.
Following the success of last year’s CYBERUK conference online,
the keynote speakers will also be streamed on the CYBERUK YouTube
channel for a wider audience.
The latest ACD findings will be contained in the fifth year
report, which will be published shortly. Last month, the NCSC
announced all UK schools
can now sign up for two ACD services – Mail Check and Web
Check – to help them boost their email and web security.
