UK 'failing on cyber crime'

The Tories have launched a stinging attack on the government's failure to pay £1.3m to fund a national e-crime policing unit.

Shadow home secretary David Davis said a crime is committed online in the UK "every ten seconds" - costing UK businesses £10bn a year.

silicon.com's e-Crime Crackdown campaign is calling for a national UK cyber crime police unit.

The unit would provide leadership and expertise to co-ordinate investigations nationwide and collate reports from police forces across the country, as well as offering a central point of contact for reporting e-crime.

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Speaking at a conference on law enforcement, organised by Microsoft, Davis contrasted this to the Serious Organised Crime Agency devoting less than two per cent of its staff and one per cent of its budget to fighting e-crime.

He criticised the Home Office's delay in providing the £1.3m start-up costs for the Policing Central E-crime Unit (PCEU), proposed by the Metropolitan Police Service and Association of Chief Police Officers.

He said: "The threat is rising … with eight out of 10 major businesses targeted by cyber criminals last year. And yet...the government can't even cobble together the £1m necessary to start up a national police e-crime unit to start dealing with this escalating problem."

Davis reiterated the Conservative Party's commitment to starting its own dedicated cyber crime policing and reporting unit if elected to government.