Recurrent debate of the UK, since the Government went against the trend to establish specialised forces for investigation of cybercrime. Whether the original decision was money-driven or not, what appears clearly now is that even businesses see they cannot afford to stay without effective enforcement forces. Thus, they even think of funding an e-crime unit. What about that? Sad that the Government which should be the leader in criminal policy chose to step back at a time when e-commerce is thriving.
More frightening really is the idea that businesses could have their say in the running of the unit. That police forces be accountable, fine; but police forces represent public interest and the State, not businesses' interests however important they may be. Accountability is to everyone and police forces should not be interfered with by anyone apart Government and fair accountability procedures. Otherwise, we are not far from private justice
"Businesses may be forced to fund e-crime unit" (18 March 2008)
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/security/0,1000000189,39369101,00.htm
To contrast with Tories' approach? Well, when money is at stake, some always find more money to avoid the loss. Yet, cybercrime is not simply about avoiding loss of money for business. Individuals' suffering (from loss of job to that of reputation, or even arrest with no attempt from prosecution to find out more) can be fare more important in terms of values society wishes to defend through criminal law and criminal prosecution.
See the BBC documentary on April 3, 2008 "Identity Fraud: Outnumbered Thu 3 Apr, 9:00 pm - 10:00 pm 60mins" http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcone/listings/programme.shtml?day=yesterday&service_id=4223&filename=20080403/20080403_2100_4223_10817_60
with the two related articles, one from Marc Sigsworth (3 April 2008) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7326736.stm and Sophos (3 April 2008) http://www.sophos.com/security/blog/2008/04/1255.html
and for the Tories "Tories attack gov't over cybercrime delay " (4 April 2008) http://news.zdnet.co.uk/security/0,1000000189,39379892,00.htm
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4 comments:
Just an update with nothing really new... former CISO officer asking for a special unit http://www.crime-research.org/news/25.04.2008/3332/ (25 April 2008)
With maybe some hope? The Metropolitan Police Service's detective superintendent Charlie McMurdie said funding should be secured soon http://news.zdnet.co.uk/security/0,1000000189,39406489,00.htm (26 April 2008)
Would the unit encompass a fraud section or be separated? Quite unclear http://news.zdnet.co.uk/security/0,1000000189,39407328,00.htm (1 May 2008) for the Attorney General for England and Wales asked for a National Anti-fraud Centre
Thanks for the post on this issue. I personally think that the specialised investigation forces are really helpful for stopping the crime. But this is not the solution for this.We have to trained our other agencies to control these crime rather then to form a new force.
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