A cross-industry group representing some of the UK's largest
employers has joined calls for a review of the Computer Misuse
Act.
In a move echoing Computer Weekly's campaign to Lockdown the Law on
cybercrime, the Information Assurance Advisory Council, a coalition
of employers, police and public sector bodies, will urge the
Government to reinforce the Act.
The group's manifesto warns the Government that with services,
banking and shopping increasingly being conducted online, an attack
on the UK's information infrastructures could bring "society to a
halt".
It urges the Government to appoint a cybersecurity tsar in the
Office of the E-Envoy, with responsibility for setting policy
across government and to champion information assurance. The tsar
should lead a comprehensive review of existing and planned
legislation and regulation to determine its impact on information
assurance, it says.
"An important step is to achieve legislative and regulatory
harmonisation to ensure that future legislation reconciles the Home
Office aims of making the UK 'a safer place to live and work' and
the Department of Trade and Industry aims of making the UK 'the
best environment for e-commerce'," it says.
Government should review the Computer Misuse Act 1990 to bring it
into line with the Council of Europe's cybercrime convention.
Computer crimes tend to be treated more leniently by the courts
than equivalent crimes in the real world, and this discrepancy
needs to be removed, the council says.
The Government should avoid repeating mistakes made in legislation
such as the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act and the
emergency powers legislation, by consulting business and other
stakeholders before new laws are drafted, it adds.
Law must be changed >>bill.goodwin@rbi.co.uk