The UK’s leading serious and organized crime agency has said it will harness the full force of law enforcement across Five Eyes countries to tackle “The Com” over the next two years.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) announced on Tuesday that it will take over as chair of the Five Eyes Law Enforcement Group (FELEG) for the first time since 2015.
The group includes key policing agencies across the UK, US, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, such as the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Australian Federal Police (AFP), Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and New Zealand Police.
As part of its mission to make the alliance more “operationally focused” to deliver results, the NCA said it will focus on disrupting cybercrime, money laundering and online sexual abuse of children.
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Many of these activities have been tied to “The Com” – a catch-all term for a network of loosely affiliated online groups known for their sadistic and violent crimes.
According to the NCA, these native-English speaking networks organize across messaging apps, gaming platforms and online forums, where they share extremist, violent and child abuse material and often coerce victims into harming themselves and others.
The UK agency flagged the growing societal threat posed by such networks, which are usually populated by teenage boys and young men, back in March.
They are also linked to more conventional cybercrime activity, via groups such as Scattered Spider, ShinyHunters and Lapsus$. These groups appear to be gaining momentum after a string of high-profile data theft extortion campaigns targeting Salesforce instances, high street retailers, luxury fashion brands and others.
This includes the Salesloft Drift campaign, the M&S and Co-Op ransomware attacks, and most recently data breaches at Gucci, Alexander McQueen and Balenciaga.
NCA director general, Graeme Biggar, said the NCA has a strong record of working with international partners, such as in taking down the LockBit ransomware gang.
“Serious and organized crime groups do not respect borders. The harm they cause is felt in communities across the world. While firearms and drug offenses play out on our streets, other crime types are taking place in dark corners online, such as encrypted platforms,” he added.
“Technology – and our everyday use of it – will continue to evolve. But criminals will also seek to exploit technology in new ways, so we must work together to direct operational cooperation against the most serious organized criminals, engage tactically with a range of sectors and use our strategic power to collectively call for change to protect the people we serve.”
A New FELEG Member
Also this week, FELEG welcomed a new full member: the UK’s Counter Terrorism Policing (CTP). Although the unit has been principal advisor to FELEG on counter terrorism since 2020, the NCA proposed that promoting it would help strengthen its response to “hybrid threats” such as The Com networks.
“So many of the threats faced by policing in the UK are also being experienced by our partners across the Five Eyes coalition, meaning our collaboration through FELEG has never been so critical,” argued assistant commissioner Laurence Taylor, head of CTP.
“Together we can bring our collective experience and expertise to bear against these emerging threats, which blur the lines between serious organized crime, hostile state activity and ideological extremism.”