Police Are Bleeding Cybercrime Experts To The Crypto Industry: NPCC

The police are bleeding cybercrime experts into the crypto industry according to the NPCC reports that we read more about in our latest cryptocurrency news today.

The crypto industry salaries are proving too lucrative for cybersecurity experts to stay within policing and the UK National Police Chief’s Council claims that they losing cybercrime experts at 3 to 4 times the rate of the rest of policing. The industry seems to be largely responsible for this where the major companies are poaching these professionals with the offers of greater pay. The police are bleeding cybercrime experts with both crypto exchange Coinbase and Chainalysis are among the few companies that pay the money to employ ex-police officers.

A Coinbase spokesperson explained that these experts can play an integral role in helping to keep the customers’ funds safe and established trust in the crypto economy. Binance as the world’s biggest exchange tapped experts from both the Financial Conduct Authority and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and the hires are meant to ensure the firm’s regulatory and the sanctions complaince around the world since politicians are leery of crypto’s role in illegal activity.

It does help the NPCC that the leaders in the industry are highly profitable and the Binance’s CEO for example is one of the richest men on Earth and as such, they can afford to offer the high salaries that pull these experts away from policing. The head of the NPCC cybercrime unit Andrew Gould said:

“The loss of experienced cyber officers and staff is a significant problem for us. Their skills are in high demand in the private sector so we can see them doubling or tripling their pay which is why they go.”

According to the NPCC estimates that about 15 individuals from the prominent backgrounds in policing and the law enforcement works for the big crypto firms with the number being expected to rise over the next 12 to 18 months:

“Whilst we don’t begrudge them a well-deserved pay rise operationally we can’t afford to lose such highly skilled staff at that rate.”

Chainalysis has found that while volumes of illicit crypto transactions are increasing with the share of total on-chain transfers falling over time and the DEFI apps are now the most preferred method for criminal actors to launder the moeny into the industry. Ransomware crimes were fairly popular to conduct with crypto which at least $600 million were stolen from victims in 2021 and since the crypto transactions are irreversible and present a major advantage for blackmailers compared to the traditional methods.