London Police and NYC Prosecutors to Swap Staff in Cybercrime Fight

Leading prosecutors in New York and London police plan to embed staff in each others’ offices, officials said Wednesday, increasing transatlantic collaboration in an effort to combat cybercrime.

The New York County District Attorney’s Office and the City of London Police will exchange one staff member each this spring, with the intention that the program will likely expand in the future.

The New York County District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. made the announcement at a Wednesday cybersecurity symposium at the New York Federal Reserve, where Adrian Leppard, City of London’s police commissioner, gave a keynote address.

The goal, officials said, is to expand joint cyber investigations in two of the largest financial centers in the world, where firms are ripe targets for cyber criminals. “The same people that are hitting us in New York are very likely hitting Adrian in London,” Vance said. “A collaboration between our two agencies would make really good sense from an investigative standpoint and also make sense from a security standpoint.”

Leppard said that cybercrime costs the United Kingdom some $40 billion a year, and the United States more than double that.

The two offices worked closely together this summer to break up an international ring of hackers that attacked over 1,600 StubHub users’ accounts and purchased more than $1 million in tickets.

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“Our international partnerships, in particular our ongoing collaboration with Commissioner Leppard and the City of London Police, reflect a changing landscape and the understanding that cybercriminal attacks will not be limited by state or national borders,” Vance said.