NEWS
MPs have called for more money to fund a new e-crime unit and end the image the UK is a "soft touch" on cybercrime.
In a parliamentary debate on internet fraud today, MPs said the government needs to "look again" at the £7m funding for the Police Central e-crime Unit (PCeU).
Conservative MP Nigel Evans said: "That amount of money may not be enough and the government may need to look at that again."
Liberal Democrat MP Tom Brake added: "There are concerns about whether £7m put into the e-crime unit will be sufficient and whether it will be sufficiently resourced to do the job in hand."
Criticism over the PCeU's funding is misguided, according to Home Office minister Alan Campbell, as the unit will be supported by other bodies under the £29m National Fraud Programme, which includes the National Fraud Strategic Authority (NFSA) and the National Fraud Reporting Centre (NFRC).
He said: "This is not the only unit seeking to tackle online fraud. That figure is not the end of the story."
Politicians also expressed alarm at the admission by Campbell during the debate that the new NFRC, which will offer a single point of contact for reporting online and all other types of fraud, can not "promise that police will investigate every fraud reported".
Lib Dem Brake said of the NFRC: "People will be very concerned if they are reporting fraud and they are not necessarily going to see any action."
Shadow crime reduction minister, James Brokenshire, added that while he approved of the unit's creation, the UK is still not taking e-crime as seriously as it should.
"We do welcome the Police Central e-crime Unit's creation. It is an admission by the government they were absolutely wrong to get rid of the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit," he said.
"But we should be under no allusions that the Police Central e-Crime Unit is a panacea. There is the question over the resources it will have and the abilities it will have.
"E-crime is the most rapidly expanding form of crime in this country. If this government does not take e-crime seriously it reinforces in the mind of the criminal that this country is a soft touch."
Brokenshire added that he believes law enforcers don't have the intelligence to appreciate the scale of the problem, criticising police for not collecting figures on online fraud and also for the requirement that people report online fraud to banks, which are then not obliged to pass details onto police.
The shadow crime reduction minister also claimed that in the last year a public servant has been disciplined for losing, or abusing access to, personal data every day and said the Conservatives would make it a criminal offence for a public official to recklessly mishandle personal data.
Comments
There are 4 comments. Join the discussion
1. Chris Goodman
MPs are not living in the real world of a debt ridden country. They should be looking at ways of chopping unrealistic and effectiveless quangos, cutting the government's administrative payroll and non jobs and generally working to return a greater share of the GDP to the public for regeneration of the collapsing economy. They should further be working on how the ever growing nation debt can be stopped and then reduced as Kenneth Clarke managed to do in the 90's
2. Radical Meldrew
For a long time banks have sustained e-crime attacks and simply absorbed the losses. They cynically weighed up the value of paying up against their potential losses if they own up. They always chose the former because those losses were easily controlled during the high profit boom period. Of course its different now that we're all adrift in the financial doldrums.
MPs have probably been made aware of this and now seek to improve e-protection for our failing banking system. Oh, and its consumers of course.
But why does it always involve injecting even more public funds? Can't the banks just do a better job than previously? I'm sure they could and they should be compelled to do so.
3. richard marks
I have been a victim of cyber fraud and can confirm that incidents reported to banks go no further. My bank reimbursed me and said that that was the end of the matter. James Brokenshire has got it right - lets support him! Today I read of a victim initiative. Hat off!
4. Garen
Great Ariticle; it is great to see that people are fight online fraud. It is a huge problem in the today's society. I believe we all need to network together in order to minimize online fraud.