£1.5million investment in cybercrime hub

East Scotland to get a state of the art facility

Police Scotland are investing £1.5million in tackling the growth of cyber crime.

A new hub in Edinburgh will combine existing units in Glenrothes, Falkirk and the capital itself.

It comes as police report a 47 percent rise in demand for forensic examinations of digital hardware like computes and phones over the past two years. 

The development will be overseen by Detective Superintendent Stevie Wilson, who said: "The growing digital economy has seen the public adopt a vast array of personal devices including PC’s, tablets, mobile phones, gaming consoles and Sat Nav equipment. With the ever increasing sophistication of these devices, we need to be able to effectively examine them when it is suspected they have been used in criminal activity.

The investigation and prevention of online Child Sexual Exploitation is one of the highest priorities for Police Scotland, and we have been at the forefront of the use of new proactive technologies to identify those individuals who represent a threat to our children.

As a consequence, two-thirds of the work of our digital forensic units involves investigations into indecent images of children. The ability to process cases more efficiently with new upgraded technical equipment means that offenders will be brought to justice more quickly

Police Scotland has recognised the increasing dependence that our people and business have on the internet and have developed the Safer Virtual Communities strategy to keep them as safe in the virtual world as they are in the physical world. This strategy is underpinned by the foundation of effective digital investigations and the East cyberhub will significantly enhance this capacity."