UK police cyber crime unit saved economy ?140m in six months

London, Oct 3 (ANI): A unit of the Metropolitan Police has saved British economy more than 140 million pounds in the past six months.

The Met said the central e-crime unit had delivered nearly 30 percent of its 504 million pounds target during this period, and is well on course to exceed its four year "harm reduction" target.

The figure relates to the amount of money the UK has been prevented from losing through cyber crime and follows a number of successful prosecutions and operations, the Guardian reports.

"In the initial six-month period the unit, together with its partners in industry and international law enforcement, has excelled in its efforts to meet this substantial commitment and has delivered in excess of 140 million pounds of financial harm reduction to the UK economy," said Deputy Assistant Commissioner Janet Williams.

"We hope to be able to better this result in the future as we expand our national capability," he added.

According to the paper, funding of 30 million pounds has been provided over four years to support the development of the unit as it tackles computer intrusion, denial of service attacks and internet fraud.

Notable early successes include Operation Pagode, which ended when five defendants were jailed for a total of 15-and-a-half years, and resulted in 84 million pounds worth of "harm" saved.

A further 5.5 million pounds was saved during Operation Dynamaphone, which resulted in three men jailed for 13-and-a-half years for their part in a sophisticated attack on the UK and international banking system.

The investigation were mainly focused on a network of individuals who obtained large quantities of personal information, such as online bank account passwords and credit card numbers through online phishing in order to steal money from the accounts and use credit card details. (ANI)