DarkMarket_ Cyberthieves, Cybercops and You - Misha Glenny [9]
Have they, perhaps, stolen your passport details, which some criminal or intelligence agent is now using as a fake travel document? Could they even, as you read this, be examining your emails, with confidential information about a colleague or employee? Might they have stumbled across some dangerously flirtatious emails or other indiscretion that you wrote or received? Is there any part of your life they could not explore, with access to your computer?
Now quite determined, the Reverend John called the police officer in the neighbouring county of Lincolnshire as soon as he arrived at the pleasant little cottage next to the imposing spire of his church in Manningham.
That this case should fall into the lap of Chris Dawson, a Scunthorpe-based policeman in early middle age, was especially unusual. Most cases of cybercrime in Britain are picked up by specialist units allied to three forces – the Metropolitan Police, the City of London Police and the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), also based in the capital. Untrained officers would mostly miss such cases because of their esoteric nature. But Dawson was unusual: he was an instinctive copper with a sharp eye. He also possessed a quiet charm, but was frank in a typical northern English fashion that contributed to his methodical and precise approach to policing. This attention to detail would serve him well in the coming months.
If Manningham was associated with ethnic tension and precipitous economic decline, nearby Scunthorpe (population 75,000), lying south of the Humber estuary, was more often regarded either as an English nowheresville or as the butt of jokes provoked both by its name and the perennially poor performances of its soccer team. (In fairness, one should add that at least it did not inherit its original Scandinavian name, Skumtorp, and until its relegation in May 2011 Scunthorpe United FC had been punching above its weight in the second tier of English football.) As far as one can establish, the town has never been cited in connection with large-scale organised criminal activity.
A mere four days before the Reverend John’s return from his charitable work in India, DS Dawson had been working happily at Scunthorpe’s central police station. He was watching the Command and Control log, a computer screen that relays information and crime reports phoned in by the public. The standard fare would include drunken fracas, the occasional domestic, and a kitten getting stuck up a tree. But on that Wednesday afternoon at 1.30 p.m. a message ran across the log that aroused the Detective Sergeant’s curiosity. It was very much out of the ordinary. He turned to his colleague and in his lilting Lincolnshire brogue said gently, ‘Come on then. We’d best go take a look. Seems like there’s something rather fishy going on at Grimley Smith.’
2
MIRANDA SPEAKS OF A BRAVE NEW WORLD
Grimley Smith Associates’ website displays a sepia photograph of their head office in Edwardian times when it functioned as one of Scunthorpe’s first ever car showrooms. Bizarrely the business proudly advertises the Belsize, an early symbol of vehicular chic in Britain whose manufacturer went into liquidation soon after the First World War. But this venerable antecedent and Grimley Smith’s Dickensian name deceive. For GSA, as it is also known, was established as recently as 1992 by a Mr Grimley and a Mr Smith.
The company offers far more complex technical services than the sale and repair of old jalopies. It specialises in chemical-engineering applications for the energy and pharmaceutical industries, and is recognised as one of Scunthorpe’s most successful young companies that now boasts a worldwide presence.
GSA’s two founders comprised the total original workforce, which has since expanded to include several