
NatWest faces 100 million cyber attacks every month, MSPs told
The bank also blocks around a third of emails coming into its system, Holyrood's Criminal Justice Committee heard.
Police and cyber crime agencies are increasingly dealing with fraudsters operating online, with gold scams and romance fraud becoming particularly prominent.
The trend increased sharply during the pandemic – in 2020 Police Scotland recorded 7,710 cyber crimes, but in 2024 that increased to 18,280.
Chris Ulliott, head of cybersecurity at NatWest, told the committee on Wednesday: 'We analyse every single email coming into our estate, looking for malicious content.
'About a third of the emails, millions a month, we actually block because they are believed to be the start of an attack against our staff.
'If I look outside our network at the attacks that are probing our estate, we're averaging about 100 million attacks per month just trying to break past the defences we have in the organisation'.
He said this has led to a cybersecurity team with hundreds of staff and a budget of millions.
Mr Ulliott said there is growing concern about fraudsters using artificial intelligence (AI) to make their approaches to people seem more credible.
Watch from 10 am on #SPTV as @agescotland @ArnoldClark @cyberfraudcen @CyberResScot @NCA_UK @NatWestGroup @PoliceScotland will give evidence on the impact of #cybercrime on business and vulnerable individuals in Scotland: https://t.co/RyXceiXtjp pic.twitter.com/fhgbhiUQDc
— Criminal Justice Committee (@SP_Justice) May 14, 2025
The technology could even be used to alter a fraudster's appearance in a real-time online call to look like an 'elderly British gent' to gain trust with a victim.
Mr Ulliott said Scattered Spider, the group which may have been behind the recent attack on Marks & Spencer, is likely a loose international group in their teens and 20s who are sharing ideas on online forums.
SNP MSP Rona Mackay said the numbers revealed by the NatWest official were 'absolutely staggering'.
Police Scotland Assistant Chief Constable Stuart Houston said law enforcement agencies around the world are collaborating to try and catch cyber criminals, with the FBI sharing intelligence on fraud and ransomware groups.
Adam Stachura from the charity Age Scotland said many elderly people are not confident users of online technology.
He said the impact of cyber crime can be devastating for the elderly, saying: 'It can create financial destitution – that hit to confidence and self-worth.'
David Keenan, chief information officer at Arnold Clark, discussed the serious cyber attack which crippled the car company's network at the end of 2022.
He said recovery was a months-long effort and the attack came despite the company having 12 staff dedicated to cybersecurity.
The SNP's Ben Macpherson said cyber crime is 'the criminal justice issue of our time'.
He said cyber criminals had even impersonated himself in order to contact constituents in Edinburgh Northern and Leith.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Daily Mirror
18 minutes ago
- Daily Mirror
Liverpool 'agree British record Florian Wirtz deal' as Reds to sign German star
Liverpool have agreed a deal to sign Florian Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen, according to reports, with the Reds having agreed to meet the Bundesliga side's demands Liverpool have reportedly clinched a British record-breaking deal for the highly sought-after Florian Wirtz, with Bayer Leverkusen's valuation finally met by the Anfield side. The transfer saga that has dominated headlines is seemingly drawing to a close as the Reds have reached an agreement with the German club that is thought to reach their £126.9million valuation should various add-ons be met. The move will surpass the £115m Chelsea paid for Moises Caicedo when they signed from Brighton two years ago. After rejecting two previous offers from Liverpool, Leverkusen stood firm on their asking price, which Liverpool have now apparently satisfied, although the specifics of the deal's structure remain undisclosed. Wirtz is poised for a medical and to put pen to paper, with reports noting that the German talent had his sights set on joining Liverpool and had agreed to terms over a fortnight ago. Despite interest from Manchester City and Bayern Munich, Wirtz has opted for a future with the Merseyside outfit. The young star's ascent at the BayArena has been nothing short of spectacular, earning him the title of Bundesliga Player of the Season in the last campaign. "You have to give special players like Flo the possibility to do special things on the pitch," former Leverkusen boss Xabi Alonso had enthused when discussing his prodigy. Wirtz, a European Under-21 Champion with Germany in 2021, has already racked up an impressive 29 appearances for the senior national team, netting six goals for Die Mannschaft. Former Germany gaffer and current Barcelona boss Hansi Flick praised: "Florian is just a huge asset for this team with his care-free nature. "He's simply an outstanding technician, loves to play, is very creative, has a good shot, runs hard and is quick. He's the full package."


Daily Mail
40 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Public's confidence in Police Scotland could be damaged by gender ruling inaction
Public confidence in policing is under threat because of a lack of progress on implementing the Supreme Court 's transgender ruling, it was claimed yesterday. Katharina Kasper, a member of the board of the Scottish Police Authority (SPA), questioned whether there was a 'policy vacuum' over whether rapists can self-identify as women. In a bombshell judgment in April, the Supreme Court stated the words 'woman' and 'sex' in the Equality Act 2010 refer to a biological woman and biological sex. Top brass had promised a full report on updates to their guidance but yesterday presented an 'interim' report on progress - which Ms Kasper said was 'disappointing'. Last night Scottish Tory equalities spokesman Tess White said: 'Even SPA board members are rightly raising concerns about Police Scotland dragging its feet on the Supreme Court ruling. 'This should not be up for debate and the public will understandably be asking why the force is still not complying with its legal obligations. 'SNP ministers must issue an urgent directive to all public bodies, including Police Scotland, to follow the law immediately so that the public retain confidence in their decision-making.' At a virtual meeting of the SPA's policing performance committee, Ms Kasper challenged Deputy Chief Constable Alan Speirs and Assistant Chief Constable Catriona Paton about trans issues. Ms Kasper voiced a 'degree of frustration', adding: 'I am concerned about public confidence in Police Scotland because this process has been taking so long, and about the impact on officers and staff.' She said Police Scotland's policy on recording gender remained unclear despite the Supreme Court ruling which should have cleared up any confusion. In March, police chiefs asked an equalities watchdog – the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) - for advice about whether they should allow rapists to self-identify as women, and provide single-sex changing rooms for staff. Last year Chief Constable Jo Farrell said the public and MSPs should be 'assured' that a man who commits rape or serious sexual assault will always be recorded as male. In March, the Mail revealed that this stance, which campaigners said was a major policy U-turn, was not communicated to officers, sparking claims that police may have misled parliament. Responding to Ms Kasper, Ms Paton said 'policing is not immune to the complexity of this issue', adding that she 'acknowledged [Ms Kasper's] frustration', while Mr Speirs said she 'understood' her concerns. It came after Ms White raised a formal complaint with Police Scotland about a 'shocking' internal document which compared gender-critical campaigners to Nazis. She was prompted to act after the Mail revealed the paper said 'gender binary' - the belief there are two genders - was a 'key feature' of Hitler's ideology.


North Wales Chronicle
an hour ago
- North Wales Chronicle
MoD ‘dishonest' to call 1994 Chinook crash an accident, say families
RAF Chinook ZD576 was carrying 25 British intelligence personnel from RAF Aldergrove in Northern Ireland to a conference at Fort George near Inverness when it crashed in foggy weather on June 2 1994 on the Mull of Kintyre, Scotland. All 25 passengers – made up of personnel from MI5, the Royal Ulster Constabulary and the British Army – were killed, along with the helicopter's four crew members. The families of those who died said earlier this month that they were beginning legal action against the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for not ordering a public inquiry. They want a High Court judge to be able to review information which they say was not included in previous investigations, and which they believe will shed new light on the airworthiness of the helicopter. The families, who have coalesced into the Chinook Justice Campaign, said failing to order a public inquiry is a breach of the UK Government's human rights obligations. An MoD spokesperson said: 'The Mull of Kintyre crash was a tragic accident, and our thoughts and sympathies remain with the families, friends and colleagues of all those who died. 'We have received a pre-action protocol letter from the Chinook Justice Campaign and are considering our response. Therefore, it would be inappropriate to comment further.' Solicitor Mark Stephens, who is representing the families, said: 'The statements issued by the Ministry of Defence in recent days are so blatantly at odds with the facts as we now know them that they have caused immense upset to the families and cast a further cruel and disgraceful shadow on this ongoing travesty of justice. 'We know that the RAF helicopter carrying the 29 service personnel who were killed, serving their country, had been grounded because of fatal flaws in the software on board. 'For the MoD to claim that this was a 'tragic accident' flies in the face of the facts and is blatantly and disgracefully at odds with the truth. 'It is nothing short of dishonest, deceitful and disingenuous and we demand a retraction.' The families have also called for the release of documents that were sealed at the time of the crash for 100 years, something revealed in a BBC documentary last year. The MoD has said that records held in the National Archives contain personal information and early release of those documents would breach their data protection rights. Mr Stephens said: 'For the Government to believe that data protection laws were designed to protect someone who is living – and who may have made a dreadful decision that night – rather than the truth emerging over 29 service personnel who were killed in an unairworthy aircraft, is a total abomination. 'This decision must be overturned, these files must be seen by a judge, and we will fight this in court if necessary.' Niven Phoenix, a commercial pilot whose father Ian was one of the senior RUC officers killed in the crash, said: 'This was about as far from a tragic accident as you could get. Locking the files away until we are all dead proves there is a cover-up about something. 'The MoD's statement that these files have been sealed to protect third party interests is yet another disingenuous, distasteful and outright dishonest assertion designed to hide the truth using data protection laws which only came into force in the UK long after the crash. 'The Government would prefer for all the children of the Chinook victims to die like their parents rather than provide access, answers and take accountability for past mistakes. This is not the duty of candour promised by Keir Starmer in his election manifesto.' Following the crash, the Chinook's pilots, Flight Lieutenants Richard Cook and Jonathan Tapper, were accused of gross negligence, but this verdict was overturned by the UK Government 17 years later, following a campaign by the families. A subsequent review by Lord Philip set out 'numerous concerns' raised by those who worked on the Chinooks, with the MoD's testing centre at Boscombe Down in Wiltshire declaring the Chinook Mk2 helicopters 'unairworthy' prior to the crash.