UK Fraud Strategy: Public-private data sharing paves the way for real-time threat disruption

The UK government’s newly expanded Fraud Strategy, launched on 9 March, sets out an ambitious, tech-driven approach to disrupting global scam networks at their source, with cross-sector data sharing at a main pillar.

Central to the new strategy is the creation of the National Crime Agency’s Online Crime Centre (OCC), a dedicated hub designed to unite law enforcement, intelligence agencies, financial institutions, and major tech firms to proactively identify and dismantle fraudulent infrastructure.

Prior to the strategy's official launch, the GSE was successfully piloted as part of the OCC’s foundational work, demonstrating immediate, high-impact results.

Highlighting this success in the NCA's launch release, James Babbage, Director General of Threats, noted that threat intelligence "shared through the Global Signal Exchange... allowed Google to disrupt criminals abusing their services," and added that "this work will be able to increase across industry with the Online Crime Centre."

Echoing this in the Home Office release, Google affirmed they "remain committed to the type of public-private collaborations presented by this strategy and the success of emerging mechanisms like the Global Signal Exchange."

By functioning as a real-time clearinghouse for threat signals—such as malicious URLs, domains, and email addresses—the GSE enables participating organizations to take swift, coordinated action to block online crime and freeze out bad actors before they can harm consumers.

This collaborative data-sharing model underscores the UK Fraud Strategy’s "disrupt" pillar, proving that treating scam signals as a shared public protection resource is highly effective against industrialised cybercrime.

Now, as the OCC officially scales up its operations backed by new government funding, the GSE looks forward to expanding its proven framework across the industry, ensuring the UK remains agile and resilient against the evolving global fraud threat.

Read the full UK Fraud Strategy here