Abstract
Serious Organised Crime (SOC) offences include high-value fraud and other financial crimes, and cybercrime. Until 2015, UK law did not consider cybercrime a SOC. Rising levels of SOC now impact more people in the UK than any other national security threat. UK law enforcement adopted the 4Ps (Protect, Prevent, Pursue and Prepare) strategy from counter-terrorism to tackle cybercrime. This paper is based on a study examining how law enforcement handles online crime (cyber-dependent and cyber-enabled crime). The study interviewed 23 law enforcement officers and 20 service providers, support organisations and victims of online crime. Participants revealed that UK law enforcement considered cybercrime a SOC after the 2017 WannaCry attack. Team Cyber UK has flourished, but now Organised Criminal Groups (OCGs) are operating successful business models committing cybercrime and fraud. OCG's involvement and increasing levels of online crime have seemingly overwhelmed UK policing's resources despite the increased resources in Team Cyber.