Net blackmailer is small fry for high-tech crime unit

We read with some bemusement a report that the National High-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU) feared for its future if it did not receive more information on security breaches.

Twice this year we have had an email from someone claiming to have hacked into two finance sites in North America. He had tried to extract money from the companies and notified the press when rebuffed.

Not wishing to collaborate in blackmail by publicising details, we informed the companies involved and forwarded the emails to the NHTCU. Both firms replied promptly but we received no response from the NHTCU to our first email, and a delayed one to the second asking us why we had sent it.

True, the companies involved were not British. But the emails, which gave a Yahoo address, could have been sent from anywhere, including the UK.

Technically, the emails themselves may have constituted an offence under Britain's catch-all conspiracy laws. However, we passed them to the NHTCU as no more than snippets that might prove useful, or not.

It turned out that the NHTCU was indignant about the report of its imminent death, which it claimed "sensationalised" a plea for more information about hacks from victim companies.

A spokeswoman said: "We have 10 operations ongoing, of a serious and organised nature. We have arrested over 25 people, who fall into the 'top tier' of criminals - those previously deemed as 'untouchables' before a unit of our standing came into existence, and we have recovered in just five months over 3TB of information ... [That] does not reflect a unit on the verge of collapse."

Our emailer evidently did not fall into their league. But if the NHTCU is not responsible for dealing with international blackmailing hackers, who is?

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