The Record reports:
Online networks of teenage boys “dedicated to inflicting harm and committing a range of criminality” are among the most significant concerns for British law enforcement, officials announced this week.
Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) is warning of a “new generation of young, English-speaking cyber criminals” who are “predominantly teenage boys that often share sadistic and misogynistic material, and have been seen to target those their own age or younger.”
In a strategic assessment, the agency said “the threat from cybercriminals based in the UK and other English-speaking countries, such as the USA, has increased relative to 2023,” which is being “driven by a loose association of online entities from a wider internet-based subculture nicknamed ‘The Com’.”
NCA Director General Graeme Biggar said these communities, referred to as “Com networks” by the agency, drive offenders to “collaborate or compete to cause harm across a broad spectrum of criminality — both on and offline — including cyber, fraud, extremism, serious violence, and child sexual abuse.”
Read more at The Record.