The e-crime unit of the Metropolitan police has claimed to have saved the economy over £140m in the past six months, delivering nearly 30% of its £504m target during this period.
The Guardian reported that The Met said the central e-crime unit is on its way to exceed its four-year "harm reduction" target.
The savings have been largely attributed to the amount of money the UK has been prevented from losing through cyber crime.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Janet Williams said: "In the initial six-month period the unit, together with its partners in industry and international law enforcement, has excelled in its efforts to meet this substantial commitment and has delivered in excess of £140m of financial harm reduction to the UK economy. We hope to be able to better this result in the future as we expand our national capability."
CRYPTOCard EMEA managing director Jason Hart siad, "The results that the central e-crime unit has been able to deliver thus far demonstrates the ongoing threat that online criminal activity poses to both businesses and individuals. These Operations alone have saved the economy significant sums."
"But businesses can’t sit back and relax. The threat of online crime is constant. Companies have to remain vigilant and ensure that they are doing everything they can to implement robust security strategies. At the moment there are far too many blind spots, such as static passwords, that act like a back gate for criminals allowing them to sneak in and out of the corporate network without being caught."
Earlier this year, a government report said that cyber crime is costing the UK economy £27bn every year with businesses being the most affected.
The report said that large companies are being targeted and loss through intellectual property (IP) theft was £9.2bn, industrial espionage was £7.6bn and extortion was £2.2bn.
Overall, in the UK while businesses lost £21bn, while individual Britons lost £3.1bn and government lost £3.1bn. The Cabinet Office said that the real loss could be higher.
Security minister Baroness Neville-Jones said the government was determined to work with industry to tackle cyber crime.
