FT.com / World - Companies call for centralised e-crime unit

FT.com / World - Companies call for centralised e-crime unit

Companies call for centralised e-crime unit
By Maija Palmer, Technology Correspondent

Published: December 17 2007 01:46 | Last updated: December 17 2007 01:46

Businesses are becoming increasingly frustrated at having no centralised organisation to which they can report instances of computer crime, and are calling on the government to form a central police e-crime unit.

David Roberts, chief executive of the Corporate IT Forum, which represents computer users in about half of the FTSE 100 companies, said his members were left with the feeling that the government did not take cybercrime seriously.

“There is no source to go to to report e-crime, other than the local police station – and they have very little understanding of it. It is a significant problem,” Mr Roberts said.

He said businesses previously had a close relationship with the National High Tech Crime Unit. However, since this was merged with the Serious Organised Crime Agency in April 2006, there has been less frequent contact. Soca does not directly take reports of cybercrime, and follows up only larger cases.

“Whereas I fully supported the need for an agency to concentrate on serious and organised crime, the loss of the NHTCU seems to have reduced the focus on ‘everyday’ computer crime that is relevant to UK business and the general public,” said Paul Simmonds, global information security director of ICI.

The recent loss of the personal details and bank accounts of 25m people by HM Revenue and Customs has brought new urgency to tackling the problem of cybercrime.

A number of high-profile security experts have signed an online petition (at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/ecrime) on the Number 10 Downing Street website, which urges the government to create a central e-crime unit. The petition is backed by Infosecurity Europe, organisers of Europe’s biggest annual IT security conference.

The Association of Chief Police Officers has submitted a proposal to the Home Office for a national e-crime unit, but the Home Office says it needs more clarification on detail and costs.

A report by the science and technology committee of the House of Lords into internet security this summer also recommended the formation of such an organisation, but it was quickly dismissed by the government. There is particular concern that there are too few resources for following up smaller computer crimes, such as fraud on the Ebay auction site, or small amounts of money stolen from online bank accounts.

Under new guidelines, individuals must report cases of identity fraud to the banks rather than police, and it is up to the banks to decide which cases to take to the police. Local police forces will record crimes such as Ebay fraud, but one force, which declined to be named, admitted it did not have the resources to pursue many of these.

“There is no one to chase the small stuff, and that is why we need a central co-ordinating unit. Soca is just interested in the big stuff, but it’s the little stuff that really hurts the citizen,” said Lord Erroll, who sits on the Lords committee and is one of the signatories to the petition. “Losing £500 can be quite critical for the average person.”

A survey last year by Get Safe Online, a government-backed initiative to alert consumers to computer crime, suggested 21 per cent of people thought e-crime was the type of crime they were most likely to encounter.

However, specific statistics on the number of computer crimes are not even being collected by the government.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007