Home secretary Amber Rudd is to announce a crackdown on criminals who exploit the dark web in pursuit of drug deals, child pornography, guns, credit scams and other illegal activities. About £9m has been set aside by the Home Office in a push to try to clean up the dark web, a largely hidden part of the internet whose users can operate with relative anonymity.

Rudd is to make the announcement on Wednesday afternoon at a conference in Manchester organised by the National Cyber Security Centre, the front window for the government surveillance agency GCHQ.

In other measures, more than £5m is to be spent on establishing police units at regional and local level dedicated to help fight cyber crime. Until recently, cyber-crime has not been a priority for police forces, with most under-resourced.

An excerpt from Rudd’s speech released in advance pinpoints the dark web as a target. “A dark and dangerous place where anonymity emboldens people to break the law in the most horrifying of ways. A platform of dangerous crimes and horrific abuse. A sickening shopping list of services and products are available.

“So today I’m pleased to announce that we will be giving over £9m to enhance the UK’s specialist law enforcement response. They will use this money to help combat the criminals who continually exploit the anonymity of the dark web.”



Earlier this year, Matthew Falder, a paedophile operating on the dark web, admitted 137 charges and was sentenced to 32 years.

The Home Office funding is part of £1.9bn pledged by the chancellor, Philip Hammond, in 2016 to improve the UK’s defences against cyber-attacks, including those on business and infrastructure. The £1.9bn was to cover spending through to 2021. The Home Office is to spend about £50m, including the crackdown on the dark web and cyber capability for the police at regional and local level, during 2018-2019.

Rudd will say: “The world of cyber is fast developing and we need a fast-developing response to match, one that recognises that it is the responsibility of everyone in the UK to fight the evolving threat.”

More police are to be trained to help them develop the skills needed to investigate cases of cyber-crime.

“[The £50m of funding] will mean that cyber-crimes are investigated thoroughly and police can support local businesses and local victims, providing the advice and care they need,” Rudd will say. “Because whilst criminals plot and hide behind their screens, their actions have real-life consequences for their victims.

“My own father was the victim of fraud and I know from personal experience the importance of supporting those who have been victimised through no fault of their own. And now that it’s happening online, it’s happening to even more people.”

She will add: “But business owners, cyber-security experts and individuals can do a lot to help too. Because in the same way that shops protect themselves from burglary with locks, alarms and security guards, I expect businesses to take equivalent precautions digitally.”

In a separate development, Donald Toon, the director for economic and cyber-crime at the National Crime Agency, one of the co-authors with the NCSC of a report this week on the risks of cyber-attacks on business, says the UK is to secure a handful of unexplained wealth orders (UWOs) in the next few months as part of an effort to target assets they suspect are part of money-laundering or other illicit operations.

Billions have poured into the UK from Russia, China and the Middle East to buy up property, companies and other investments.



UWOs have only been used twice so far, both times on the same individual. Toon said his officers were working on about 100 cases and he expected about five more UWOs to be issued in the next three months.