The webhosting company alerted the affected business of a problem, and 24 hours later took the website offline to protect the public from infection.

The affected business contacted the University of Bedfordshire for advice and assistance. Bedfordshire police engaged in evidence gathering, whilst students from the University cleared the malware from the system and bought it back to the University for analysis, reverse-engineering, and to identify intelligence about the originator.

The incident provided an excellent opportunity for the students to work on a real life problem and to apply what they have learned into practice.

Sergeant Phil Cobley, High Tech Crime and ANPR Intelligence Manager, found that the case was a great example of utilising the resources that the University has to offer. “This incident started as an intelligence gathering exercise. Bedfordshire Police and the University already work together in many ways, so when the business raised concerns to the University’s Computer Science department, we were able to assist immediately.

“The force was able to meet the business owner and identify the aim of the attack, whilst the University were on hand to clean out the malware whilst recording the evidence.

“This exercise has informed our own incident response end-to-end process, as well as providing extra resource (in the students) who can now reverse engineer the attack and possibly provide more intelligence to identify the originator.”

Student Josh Halsey said: “It was a fantastic opportunity for us to visit a real working company with an issue on their website that gave us the chance to deal with the threats they had in their system. This gave us experience of working with a real system, not a classroom model and to follow strict rules about accessing and working with another company's system.”

When interviewed, an excited Charlie Dove, Computer Security and Forensics student said it was a "unique opportunity to work with the police in a real working environment outside of the classroom. Where we were able to put what we have learned into practice, while learning of the investigative procedures used in an investigation. "

Gordon Brady, Business Partnership Manager - Innovation & Enterprise Service at the University said: “Bedfordshire Police are keen to collaborate with the University and to involve students in the work they’re doing on targeting cybercrime.

“We are always looking for ways to maximise the available opportunities to students and this was a very interesting experience for them. This also proved that collaboration with the University can provide the access to new ideas and expertise to effectively target cybercrime.”

The students are looking to provide security checks for businesses to ensure that they’re protected from online threats. Such services could be available to businesses of any size, to support and guide on online security, as well as checking the systems which are already in place to ensure best outcomes.

Further information on how the Police can help businesses be protected from cybercrime can be found at www.bedfordshire.police.uk/tackling_crime

Superintendent Jon Gilbert and Sergeant Phil Cobley from Bedfordshire Police also spoke at a guest lecture, hosted by the University of Bedfordshire on Thursday, 5^th March, to provide guidance on cyber-crime to students as well as wider community.

The students involved the project were Charlie Dove, Scott Dewson, Tommy Hall, Josh Halsey and Barry Nacey.