Former Police Chief Highlights Need to ‘Tear Up Rule Book’ to meet Cyber and Terrorism Threats

The ‘rule book’ on tackling cyber crime and terrorism is constantly being torn up to meet these threats, a former leading Metropolitan police officer said today.

Maxine de Brunner, former Deputy Assistant Commissioner, said the Met had to embrace widespread change in training and culture to deal with cyber crime and terrorism.

Speaking at a women’s breakfast seminar at the British Venture Capital Association summit hosted by Rosling King, Ms de Brunner said: “70% of robberies in London today are mobile phone thefts which generate widespread identity theft crimes. At the Met we had to undergo rapid change to deal with this threat more effectively.

“The same willingness to embrace change applies to the terrorism threat. We have to stay ahead of the terrorists or they win. The events at the London Bridge attack were horrific and tragic but police were able to respond within eight minutes and that would have been very difficult a few years ago.

“Every single person can make a change to their own organisations which will help in dealing with these type of threats.”

Georgina Squire, head of dispute resolution at Rosling King, said:” We have seen a  significant growth in the number of cyber crime and security related problems – such as data breaches – being referred to us to resolver. All of which have done great harm to organisations.”