Head of National Cyber Crime Unit laments IT skills gap

Cyber crime law enforcers must forge closer ties with industry to plug an IT skills gap that has the potential to hamper their investigative powers.

That's according to Andy Archibald, head of the Government's National Cyber Crime Unit (NCU), who used his address at today's E-Crime Congress event in central London to highlight the need for skilled IT workers to help in the fight against cybercrime.

"The world and environment we're policing is changing and there is an absolute need to respond," said Archibald.

To emphasise this point he cited the different skills law enforcers must draw on today to tackle bank robberies that rely on technology to be carried out, rather than weapons and getaway cars.

"You can be in a room anywhere in the world, with access to malware and the ability to hack into and intrude into businesses in the financial sector, and you can commit crime and fraud and make millions of pounds," he added.

During his address, Archibald admitted the skills law enforcers need to successfully clamp down on cyber criminals are in short supply, though.

"We need still to retain the ability, skills, experience and knowledge about how to investigate and engage with the Criminal Justice system, but the skills we need to recover evidence and recover intelligence from the internet are high-end skills and technical skills that aren't in high abundance in law enforcement," he said.

In particular, coders, programmers and people with skills in reverse engineering are highly valued by law enforcers, but it can be a challenge to attract and retain them, admitted Archibald.

"It's a tough marketplace...Not only does the public sector [and] law enforcement need these skills, but so does the private sector," he said.

"The private sector, traditionally, the salary packages have been more attractive, and I think that's a challenge for law enforcers.

"How do you begin to address that particular issue as we move forward so we can attract the best, retain the best and ensure we continue to develop and protect our environment?"

One way would be for law enforcers to engage more with the private sector to gain access to the skills they need, he said, which is something the NCU is already doing.

Forging close ties with businesses in the private sector will also make it easier to share knowledge about cyber attacks, he added, which in turn will make it easier for law enforcers to gauge the scale of threats.

"My ambition in the coming months and coming years is, when we begin an investigation and try to work out what's the best strategy, I don't want to just be sitting in a room with colleagues from law enforcement having that discussion," he said.

"I want to be in the room with people perhaps from intelligence services, perhaps from the private sector, from the banks and from the retail sector and from the ISPs and from a multi-national global institution who can advise us on how best to take on that investigation."