Hacker proves password theft is easy

Stuart Hyde, deputy chief constable of Cumbria Police, was also present at the event and stated the importance of industry and law enforcement working together to tackle criminal acts such as identity theft through password appropriation.

With this, police need to modernise and understand the technologies criminals are using, Hyde insisted, pointing to Cumbria Police's own use of Twitter during the recent shootings in the county.

"Unless we are on the pitch, we won't be able to tackle these issues," he said, explaining how the force has gone undercover on Facebook to prevent orgnanised football hooliganism and other crimes.

Last week the National Policing Improvement Agency updated its Initial Crime Investigators Development Programme to include social network training.

Tom Brewster

Tom Brewster is currently an associate editor at Forbes and an award-winning journalist who covers cyber security, surveillance, and privacy. Starting his career at ITPro as a staff writer and working up to a senior staff writer role, Tom has been covering the tech industry for more than ten years and is considered one of the leading journalists in his specialism.

He is a proud alum of the University of Sheffield where he secured an undergraduate degree in English Literature before undertaking a certification from General Assembly in web development.