Deputies wanted to fight cybercrime

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=3972045

10 December, 2003 
By Bernhard Warner
European Internet Correspondent

LONDON (Reuters) - A contingent of MPs, police and technology industry
executives are proposing that civilian specialists be deputised and
local laws strengthened to fight cyber crime.

"E-crime has become a huge problem, hitting e-commerce, hitting
business. It's one of the obstacles in the way of creating a true
information society," said Philip Virgo, Secretary General of EURIM, a
ten-year-old trade group for Europe's technology sector.

EURIM is hoping the proposals act as a blueprint for other European
countries also caught in the grip of a cyber crime wave.

According to Virgo, the group has collected input from the UK's
National Hi-Tech Crime Unit, elected officials and executives from the
country's biggest banks and business association to develop a
blueprint for fighting one of the biggest crime threats facing
businesses and individuals.

The group will propose that the government relieve the overburdened
police force by enrolling computer security specialists from the
private sector to assist.

They would be akin to special constables, Virgo said, except they
would not be granted power of arrest nor would they be required to
assist police in non-computing police work.

Recruiting computer specialists to help in cyber investigations is
nothing new. Granting them an expanded role, though, points to the
growing problem of cyber crime that afflicts the developed world.

Fortifying computer networks against digital attacks and educating
people about the existence of Internet crime rings was dubbed an issue
of "pressing global interest in the 21st Century" by dignitaries at
the United Nations inaugural IT conference in Geneva on Wednesday.

Police around the globe have reported a dramatic upswing in organised
crime groups preying on online businesses in sophisticated extortion
tactics. Fraud too has increased significantly as more consumers
become regular online shoppers.

"Ten percent of the world's population is on the Internet. That means
ten percent of the criminals are online too," said Virgo.

The group is also asking the British government to update the UK's
Computer Misuse Act, which predates the dawn of the World Wide Web.  
The law has been used to convict virus writers, but critics fear it
may not be adequate to tackle new waves of online crime.

The EURIM proposal predates a Home Office task force, which is looking
to devise a series of proposals on how to boost the nation's defences
against cyber crime.

While no accurate statistics are kept on the matter, some law
enforcement officials believe the UK is a particularly hot target for
online crime gangs because of the country's rapidly growing Internet
population.



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