Are the UK Government doing enough to tackle cybercrime?
The UK is under growing threat from Cybercrime, according to a recent article in the Huffington Post ‘The government must do more to help the UK public dodge malware and stay safe online’ say MPs on the Science and Technology Select Committee in a new report.
Andrew Miller MP, Chair of the Commons Science and Technology Committee, said: “Knowledge is the best defence against fear, so the Government should focus on raising awareness of how to stay safe online—rather than scaring people about the dangers of cybercrime.”
The report points out that eighty per cent of protection against cyber-attack is “routine IT hygiene”, or keeping virus and malware protection software up to date.
Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at security firm Sophos said that while the report raises important points, the origins of the data must be called into question.
“Much of the data used by the report is supplied by security vendors, who - one can argue - could have a vested interest in hyping up the internet threat. To avoid such accusations, proper systems *must* be put in place to make it easy for citizens to report internet crimes and malware attacks.
So are the government doing enough? Another article by Steve Evans of CBR today announced that three specialist police cybercrime teams have been created across the UK to tackle the growing threat of online crime.
The centres will be set up in Yorkshire and the Humber, the Northwest and East Midlands and they will work alongside the Metropolitan Police Centre e-crime Unit (PCeU) in London, which deals with national online security, the BBC said.
The hubs are part of a four-year, £30m commitment from the UK government to improve national capability to investigate and combat cybercrime. The units will be staffed by a detective sergeant and two detective constables, who will be fully trained before the units are operational.
Do you think there is enough awareness of the dangers and the preventative methods that can be put in place?
If you want to find out more, Colin Wetherill Cyber Industry Liaison Officer, from the Policy Central e-crime Unit for the Metropolitan Police will be speaking at the Information Security Executive Summit on February 28th and 29th at Richmond Hill Hotel. Colin will bring to the forefront some of the work undertaken by the Police Central e-crime Unit and what this is being done to meet the challenges of detecting e-crime.
