Tough on cyber crime, tough on the causes of cyber crime
By Davey Winder in Editorial
Posted in Data Protection, Blog, Security on
So the Shadow Home Secretary, David Davis, has today unveiled his plans for the appointment of a Cyber Security Minister to tackle cybercrime, and at the same time rather predictably and totally deservedly fired a broadside at the government over its handling of data security. today while blasting the Government’s handling of data security. Speaking at the e-crime congress in London Davis accused the government of displaying “naïve reliance on massively centralised data systems” and a “recklessness towards personal data” which has left us all vulnerable as individuals and society as whole. In fact the exact words he used were that the way the government has handled data security has created systems that are, at the same time, “valuable, vulnerable and attractive to attack.”
Political point scoring apart, he has hot on a raw nerve and the idea of single minister responsible for cyber crime, a cyber crime czar if you like, certainly has it merits. Especially when you factor into consideration that at the very same e-crime congress NATO is speaking about the sheer scale of the risk from cyber warfare when compared against ‘traditional’ missile attack. In the McAfee Virtual Criminology Report, a NATO security specialist said: “Attackers are using Trojan horse software targeted at specific government offices - because they are custom-written, these Trojans are not amenable to signature detection and they can slip past anti-viral technologies, so this is a big problem.” Governments need to wake up and smell the Java, so to speak.
As Greg Day, a senior security analyst at McAfee, told me the recommendation for a Cyber Security Minister is a positive step towards highlighting the need for a “Government minister to spearhead awareness of the threat of online crime and cyber warfare and helps to ensure that cyber security issues continue to be on everyone’s radar. Every person, business or Government agency that uses a computer or has their information anywhere in the public domain should be aware of the potential danger associated with this. We welcome these steps to highlight the need for a security minister and more for legislative action at a Governmental level to tackle cyber warfare and online crime.”
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