The National Crime Agency (NCA) says it has £4 million available to build a dedicated data analytics team who will be at the forefront of fighting serious and organised crime, using “industrial scale data analytics”.
In a new tender designed to underpin a “National Data Exploitation Capability” (NDEC), the agency said it needs expert support with data acquisition, cloud-based tools development, data exploitation and more.
Under a new 24-month contract it wants a supplier to provide “small, self-contained development teams with the requisite skills to design and build analysis tools, platforms and services”. They need cloud experience, primarily in Amazon Web Services (AWS) but also familiarity with Microsoft Azure.
What’s the National Crime Agency’s “National Data Exploitation Capability”?
The NCA, which leads the UK’s fight on organised crime including cyber crime, said the NDEC is a “unprecedented, sophisticated, and joined up approach in the deployment of data to help cut serious and organised crime.”
The agency added Monday: “Technically speaking it will deliver industrial scale data analytics and be the foundation for a suite of data driven products and services that will underpin access to and understanding of intelligence relating to national security.”
The tender comes as reports suggest that cybercrime will cost firms $6 trillion annually by 2021 – making it more profitable than the global drugs trade.
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The supplier that wins the contract will need to provide SC-cleared (advanced clearance) staff who are familiar with DevSecOps (Development, Security and Innovations) and agile methodologies.
Where is All the Data Coming From?
In the NCA’s annual plan, released last year, the association outlined the most severe serious and organised crime threats to the UK.
These consist of child abuse, sex trafficking, organised immigration crime, cyber-crime, money laundering and criminal discharge of fire arms.
In the 2019 National and Strategic Assessment of Serious and Organised Crime released by the NCA, the association stated that: “The tools and techniques employed by elite cyber Organised Crime Gangs (OCGs) can be as sophisticated as those used by nation-state threat actors.
“Conversely, some state associated groups have reportedly used cyber criminal infrastructure and money laundering networks, including in the UK, to further their activity. The ability of some elite cyber groups to develop their activity despite the arrests of leading members implies that they are more resilient and decentralised than previously assessed”.
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