'Broken: E-crime policing in the UK'

E-crime policing in the UK is broken, according to one MP spearheading a new cyber crime fighting taskforce.

Former deputy home secretary, MP Alun Michael, told silicon.com that insights from industry as well as his own experience of reporting cyber crime, has left him convinced the system is fatally flawed.

Currently, low-level internet fraud, hacking and spamming attacks must be reported to local police forces. These forces often lack the expertise or resources to deal with the reports or to piece together information on larger attacks happening nationwide.

When Michael reported a number of such low-level cyber crimes, he found no evidence his complaint had been dealt with - a failing repeatedly highlighted by business.

He said: "I have made a number of cyber crime complaints and what happened? Absolutely nothing.

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.

We want to hear your views about this campaign and your experiences of being a victim of cyber crime. Were you happy with the way your case was handled? Make your voice heard by leaving a Reader Comment below or emailing us in confidence at editorial@silicon.com.

"It means there is no evidence of anything happening as far as public complaints are concerned, and that is what I am told by business as well.

"That is a recipe for low confidence and reactionary legislation and the last thing that we want is the computer equivalent of the ill-considered Dangerous Dogs Act."

Michael is spearheading the creation of the Internet Crime Reduction Partnership (ICRP), a stakeholder group that will bring together industry, government, civil society and law enforcement to tackle the online threats that are going unaddressed.

Michael says the partnership already has high-level support, citing Home Secretary Jacqui Smith and secretary of state for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform John Hutton as being among its backers.

Early priorities are likely to be securing a central contact for reporting all cyber crime, a charter of security responsibilities for industry - from ISPs to software vendors, the creation of dedicated national cyber policing units, an online consumer safety campaign and a consumer checklist for internet security.

Michael is an enthusiastic supporter of the proposed Policing Central E-crime Unit (PCEU) and the National Fraud Strategic Authority (NFSA), seeing them as vital to combating the estimated $104bn cyber crime industry.

Michael said: "The partnership's aims will be to make the UK the safest place to do business online and give the public increased levels of confidence and knowledge about how to stay safe on the internet.

"It has taken far too long to get to this point where the three PCEU, NFSA and ICRP initiatives are going forward."

He believes that industry and policing can take a similar joint approach to combating low level online cyber crimes to the combined efforts of ISPs, charities and law enforcers worldwide in stamping out child abuse online.

He said: "It is an example of where industry is a key part of the solution and the UK approach has had the maximum impact.

"It took 12 years to get to that point but it can't take us that long to tackle other cyber crimes. We have to use the lesson learnt from that and apply them to the difficult challenges ahead of us."