The head of the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) has warned that the country’s teens are being “radicalized” into becoming cybercriminals by online platforms.
The NCA was set up over a decade ago to tackle serious and organized crime.
In a speech to launch the NCA’s National Strategic Assessment this week, Graeme Biggar, NCA director general, argued that “the same toxic online spaces” and algorithms are turning teens into cybercriminals, sex offenders and terrorists.
“Technology is no longer simply a tool that criminals use. It is reshaping crime itself: accelerating it, globalizing it, and making it more harmful,” he said. “Tech companies need to face up to their responsibilities in a way they have simply not done yet.”
Biggar’s wider point was that the boundaries between different types of crime are blurring. Other examples he gave were cyber-attacks coming from both nation states and cybercrime groups, and money laundering networks serving criminals, terrorists and hostile states.
“This matters. Crime has become one ecosystem,” he continued. “We cannot keep treating it as many separate ones. As crime changes, so must we.”
Read more on the NCA: NCA Warns of Sadistic Online “Com” Networks.
This isn’t the first time Biggar has called out the corrupting impact of digital platforms on young people. In September 2025, the NCA took over as chair of the Five Eyes Law Enforcement Group (FELEG) and singled out “The Com” as a target.
This network of loosely affiliated online groups of English speakers is known for sadistic and violent crimes. There’s also a significant crossover with more conventional cybercrime activity, via groups such as Scattered Spider, ShinyHunters and Lapsus$.
Cybercrime and Online Fraud on the Rise
Biggar recounted a year of growing threats online, citing major breaches at TfL, the Legal Aid Agency, M&S, the Co-op, Kido nurseries, and Jaguar Land Rover.
“The majority still originate overseas, but we have seen the emergence of UK-based attackers, combining sophisticated malware with social engineering – exploiting not just technical vulnerabilities, but human ones too,” he said.
“The message for organizations is clear: securing your systems is not enough. You also need to address how your people and processes, and those of your supply chain, can be manipulated.”
He also referenced a surge in online fraud, especially investment scams but also a disturbing increase in “sextortion and sadistic exploitation.”
Biggar added, “AI adds complexity and volume, and algorithms accelerate and normalize harm.”
However, there was also optimism in his speech. Biggar pointed to law enforcement wins like the Lockbit takedown, a 27% increase in fraud convictions, and 1000 arrests a month in child sexual abuse cases.
“The online world can be as happy a hunting ground for law enforcement as for criminals. Cryptocurrency can be traced. Online anonymity can be peeled away,” he continued. “The same technology that criminals exploit can be used to find them. We intend to.”
Biggar claimed the new Online Crime Centre, announced last week as part of the government’s fraud strategy, will increase the speed of data sharing between government and industry, and across sectors.