UK warns of emerging threat from ‘sadistic’ online ‘Com networks’ of teenage boys therecord.media/uk-threat…

Online networks of teenage boys “dedicated to inflicting harm and committing a range of criminality” are among the most significant concerns for British law enforcement, officials announced this week.

Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) is warning of a “new generation of young, English-speaking cyber criminals” who are “predominantly teenage boys that often share sadistic and misogynistic material, and have been seen to target those their own age or younger.”

In a strategic assessment, the agency said “the threat from cybercriminals based in the UK and other English-speaking countries, such as the USA, has increased relative to 2023,” which is being “driven by a loose association of online entities from a wider internet-based subculture nicknamed ‘The Com’.”