Police turning to counter-terrorism measures to fight cybercrime

Police are joining forces and cooperating with the a number of major banks to fight cyber attacks and hackers with counter-terrorism techniques.

The police's National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) has been using the new measures to identify bank accounts being targeted by criminals.

It is thought the theft of around £175 million has been prevented in the last nine months.

Information discovered by the NFIB is passed onto the British Bankers' Association (BBA), which can then issue alerts to the institutions in danger of a cyber attack.

Anthony Browne, chief executive, BBA, adds: "Cybercrime and fraud are some of the biggest security threats that we face. The systems that we have set up with the City of London Police have helped to protect hundreds of millions of pounds of customers' money, but we want to go further."

The way bank's protect the information and data they store on customers has been highlighted by the theft of data from Barclays, which has affected thousands of customers.