Research in the UK by Bedfordshire police has found that many online criminals had previous history for committing crimes in the real world including theft, burglary, shoplifting and a range of violent crimes.
Jon Boutcher, deputy chief constable of Bedfordshire, spoke to convicted online criminals and found that 64 percent had convictions for non-cyber offenses.
The findings back up comments by Adrian Leppard, Commissioner of the City of London Police, who said recently that international gangsters are abandoning drug dealing and other high-risk activities in favor of cyber-crime.
Leppard added that businesses and the public would have to continue to do more to protect themselves by adopting cybersecurity controls and urged the government to create a cyber security standard for software security that vendors could compete for.
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