Cybercrime has received the 'Tier One' national security risk status in many countries due to the increased cyber threats. In response to this severe threat, governments have announced a substantial amount of investment in cybercrime prevention programmes. It is evident that tackling cybercrime requires expertise and cybersecurity skills as the networked global nature of the Internet pose significant challenges to policing cybercrime. Previous policing cybercrime studies illustrated that local police officers lack the technical skills, which obviously hampered the fight against cybercrime. Police forces continue enhancing their ability to tackle cybercrime through specialised cybercrime units. Nevertheless, there is a dearth of empirical research examining policing problems of economic cybercrime through the lenses of expert police officers working in cybercrime departments. This empirical research addresses this knowledge gap in the literature. A thematic analysis method was employed to analyse semi-structured interviews conducted with expert police officers working at cybercrime departments in the United Kingdom.Lack of international cooperation, underreporting of economic cybercrime incidents and lack of victim awareness emerged as key challenges. Police officers' views regarding private sector involvement in policing economic cybercrime appear to be tentative due to ethical concerns. Publicprivate partnership in combatting cybercrime appears to be an effective solution to enhance the effectiveness of combatting cybercrime. European Union (EU)'s new Cybersecurity Act (Regulation 2019/881), which restructures the European Union Agency for Network and Information Security (ENISA) is the latest example of public-private partnership in combatting cybercrime. However, the results of this study suggest that the scope of this initiative should be extended to non-EU countries to maintain global cybersecurity.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.