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How are you managing cybercrime? • Survey results PART 1

A few weeks ago Blue Line began collecting responses to its survey on navigating the growing cybercrime problem. Thank you to everyone who participated — we had 17 submit responses, which is a much larger result than our first “themed week” survey back in June!

Participants were asked nine short questions and provided a space to add any additional comments.

Results will be archived on Blue Line’s Cybercrime Week microsite.

Participant identified themselves as:

Police officers – 41.18 per cent
Civilians employed by a law enforcement agency – 17.65 per cent
Consultants to a law enforcement agency – 11.76 per cent
Other law enforcement officer – 5.88 per cent
Other – 23.53 per cent (included someone from Crime Stoppers, a security consultant, a civilian and a private trainer)

Question 1: Does your agency have a cyber unit?
No – 58.82 per cent
Yes – 35.29 per cent
In the process – 5.88 per cent

If participants marked, “Yes,” they were asked to specify the name of that unit. Answers included:

• Ecrime Unit
• Cyber Defence Operations (CDO)
• CSIS
• Cybercrime Unit
• Commercial Crimes Unit
• Cyber Crimes Investigative Unit

Question 2: How new is your agency’s cyber unit?
Established in last year or two – 50 per cent
Established 3-5 years ago – 37.5 per cent
Established over 5 years ago – 12.5 per cent

Question 3: How many employees are in that unit?
Answers varied. Many put zero. One wrote 15, another wrote two. Others said: three, one,  10, two marked down eight, “no idea, sorry,” question mark and “five?”

In total:

Zero members – five
One member – one
Two members – one
Three members – two
Five, with a question mark – one
Eight members – one
Ten members – one
Fifteen members – one
Question marks – two

Question 4: What are the type of cybercrime incidents your agency is dealing with most heavily?
Phishing scams – 35.29 per cent
Fraud & identity theft – 29.41 per cent
Online stolen property – 11.76 per cent
Information warfare – 5.88 per cent
Hacking –  zero per cent
Traffikcing (drugs, humans) – zero per cent
Sextortion – zero per cent
Cryptocurrencies – zero per cent
Other – 17.65 per cent

If participants marked, “Other,” they were asked to specify. Answers included:
• Not sure
• N/A
• All of the above

Stay tuned for the PART 2 of the results, which will be revealed on Thursday.

Special thanks to Cyber Security Canada for sponsoring Cybercrime Week and to everyone who participated in this survey.