NCSC second annual report highlights cyber-fraud prevention

The UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has released its second annual Active Cyber Defense report, showcasing successful interventions in preventing scams and threats across the UK.

Part of the NCSC's plan for bolstering cyber-security in the UK is the Active Cyber Defense (ACD) programme, which aims to reduce the harm of cyber threats to the UK's general population. The scheme has just hit its second anniversary and released its second annual report on its interventions throughout the year to improve the UK's cyber-security.

Highlights from the report include the dramatic shift in the number of phishing attempts in which someone impersonates a member of HMRC. Government agencies and HMRC were some of the most common brands for attackers to impersonate throughout 2018, but a comprehensive campaign to shut down those misusing the brand to scam people has resulted in HMRC dropping from the 16th to the 146th most popular digital disguise used by criminals.

The report indicates that the NCSC prevented 140,000 phishing attempts and shut down 190,000 fraudulent websites. Most of the sites were able to be taken offline within 24 hours of being discovered, and email addresses used for scamming and phishing were shut down promptly.

The scheme takes advantage of automated processes to discover fraudulent sites and then report the criminal activity to the site's web-host, which is usually sufficient to get the site removed. It also tackled a major scam in which fraudsters impersonated an airport and asked for a small payment to unlock a large refund -- the refund would then never happen.

Source: ACD Report via BBC News