Current Threat Picture & Response

Cyber enabled and cyber dependent crime has been increasing exponentially this has grown further during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is an area of increasing risk and Police Scotland wish to ensure that our policing model can respond effectively.

For these reasons, Tackling Crime in the Digital Age is one of four priorities for policing as outlined in our Joint Strategy with the Scottish Police Authority.

The following figures provide the scale of the problem and the threat, risk and harm this poses to the communities across Scotland:

- 511% increase of Online Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation (OCSAE) referrals from 2015-2021.

- 650% increase of referrals regarding child sexual abuse imagery over a 9 year period.

- 17% increase of fraud was recorded in the past 12 months, with a 68% increase over the last 5 years.

- Average of 1500 crime per month, 95% of which are now online.

- Around 40% of businesses across the UK are victims of cybercrime, many of which don’t even report it, viewing it as simpler to pay the ransomware attackers, than suffer the reputational damage of the loss of customer’s data.

Police Scotland has made good progress in this space, including significant investment in digital forensics staffing, staff training and the roll out of a First Responders Guide (FRG). 

We have established partnerships across the cyber ecosystem, including being a key stakeholder in the Cyber Scotland Partnership, with a focus on reaching public, private, and 3^rd sector/learning and skills development, promoting cyber security and online safety.