Cybercrime Disruption Demands Global Trust and Coordination

Dismantling cybercrime groups requires more than technical capability. It demands trust, coordinated strategy and cross-border collaboration, said Paul Foster, head of the National Cyber Crime Unit at the U.K.’s National Crime Agency, or NCA.

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Cross-border law enforcement collaboration has matured significantly since the pandemic. A renewed push beginning early 2023 – among Five Eyes agencies, European partners and Europol – produced a shared incident response framework built around four principles: collect, store, analyze and engage. But underpinning every operation is something more fundamental, he said.

“Nothing happens in the scale of the cybercrime landscape without organizations trusting each other. And you have to earn trust. You have to build trust,” Foster said.

In this video interview with Information Security Media Group at RSAC Conference 2026, Foster also discussed:

• How artificial intelligence is lowering the barrier to cybercrime by accelerating threat delivery and enabling automation at scale;
• Strategies to make cybercrime a less profitable and higher-risk business;
• Why effective law enforcement innovation depends on empowering teams, not individual excellence.

Foster leads NCA’s cybercrime operations and capabilities and the U.K. law enforcement’s response to cybercrime. He also chairs the Five Eyes Cybercrime Community of Practice. Prior to NCA, he was the head of intelligence at the Regional Organized Crime Unit.