Police unit claims £140m success in e-crime crackdown

The Metropolitan Police's digital crime unit has saved the economy more than £140m in the last six months by targeting online criminals, according to newly released figures.

The Met's Police Central e-Crime Unit (PCeU), is an 85-strong team whose remit is to tackle those responsible for the most serious digital crime such as computer intrusion, distribution of malware, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks and internet fraud.

The £140m represents the amount of money the UK has been prevented from losing through cybercrime. The PCeU said on Sunday this saving is the result of a number of successful prosecutions and operations by the unit.

For more on this ZDNet UK-selected story, see Busted: Police unit saves UK £140m in crackdown on digital crime on silicon.com.