Analysis: The biggest identity fraud in history

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Fyffe said it was worrying that organisations like HM Revenue and Customs and other government departments thought that as data has not appeared, in effect the problem has ‘gone away’.

“I’m not sure that’s the case,” said Fyffe. “If I had stolen that data, I think the last thing that I would want to do is to start using it while everyone is out there looking for it. I would sit back and wait. Let the dust settle and then begin to use it when people have forgotten about it.”

David Emm, senior technology consultant at Kaspersky said that such a high profile case would put the problem back into the public eye the whole issue of personal data and how it was handled and looked after in the public domain.

He also said that the very fact that the criminals had been caught and charged from many countries showed that there was hope for the future even though there were still many barriers to consider when it came to countries working together.

Emm said: “It would be great if there was a cyber Interpol. The problem here is that we have crime without frontiers in the sense that the internet doesn’t have political and or geographical boundaries.

“That said in the last five or ten years law enforcement agencies across the globe, particularly in the developed countries, have got skilled and experienced people working for them and they do cooperate to a large degree.”

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