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Security experts petition for e-crime unit

An online petition has been set up to ask the government to form a central e-crime police unit, following last week's massive data breach.

By Nicole Kobie, 30 Nov 2007 at 15:19

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IT security experts have set up an e-petition asking the government to create and fund a centralised e-crime policing unit in the wake of the loss the records of 25 million people by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

The e-petition, on the government's dedicated site, asks Prime Minister Gordon Brown "to give the formation of a police central e-crime unit, as proposed by the Metropolitan and ACPO, urgent priority".

Such a body has previously existed, but was folded into the Serious Organised Crime Agency last year.

The supporting details for the petition said that the loss of records by HMRC make a centralised, well-resourced e-crime unit a "matter of great urgency". It argues such a body should investigate all computer crime, "including information and identity theft from data and call centres, not just the use of the Internet to automate old crimes and invent new ones".

One of the early signatories, Philip Virgo, the secretary general of information society EURIM, said: "I am not a great one for signing petitions myself but I think I will be signing this one, alongside most of the Chief Information Security Officers who attended the meeting at which Scotland Yard briefed us on the plans some months ago."

While as of writing, it has under 30 signatures, supporters include Lord Toby Harris of the Metropolitan Police Authority, Oxford software professor Martyn Thomas and Simon Moores of the Conservative Technology Forum, and others from the security industry. The petition was started by Neil Stinchcombe, head of public relations for Infosecurity Europe (InfoSec).

"I think there's a need for it," said Stinchcombe. "We wanted to make government aware of it, and to push them to pay for it rather than the private sector."

Indeed, the petition calls for the government to follow the lead of the United States, and give additional funding and resources, and not just take the from existing police budgets.

InfoSec are setting up an Information Security Awareness month in April to further push home the point, Stinchcombe said. "Security awareness... seems to be a factor in what happened at HMRC," he explained. "If people were aware, they wouldn't have transmitted the data of 25 million people in quite that way."