Britain's computer crime laws are failing to protect businesses
from a rising tide of computer crime, most IT professionals
believe.
More than 70% claim the law is inadequate to deal with the problems
they face, an exclusive survey of 500 IT professionals has
revealed.
The findings, from research by
Computer Weekly and Infosec
Europe, will add impetus to calls for the Government to review and
update the law.
The inability of the law to deal with denial of service attacks,
offences committed overseas and grey areas in the Computer Misuse
Act come top of the list of concerns.
Thirty-five percent said they thought the sentences given out to
hackers were not severe enough to act as a real deterrent, with
many of those prosecuted under the Computer Misuse Act escaping
with fines or suspended sentences.
"Computer misuse can kill people. With IT systems running defence,
hospital and other important facilities, a maximum sentence should
reflect this," one IT professional commented.
The findings of the research paint a bleak picture of the ability
of law enforcement agencies and the courts to handle high-tech
crime.
Although 60% of the professionals questioned said their
organisations had experienced a security breach in the past year,
only 6% have bothered to report incidents to the police.
More than a third said they did not believe the police would be
able to do anything about the breach if they did report it.
Just 2% said the police had dealt with a computer-related crime
successfully.
"The police do not have the necessary resources in time, expertise
or manpower to actively combat this type of crime. The government
pay lip service but do put adequate resources in unless it hurts
them directly," said one respondent.
Few thought the police had a good understanding of IT security
issues. A third of respondents thought the police had an adequate
knowledge, but 45% described the police's understanding as
"poor".
The courts and the legal profession also need better training to
understand the issues raised by computer crime, the survey
suggests.
More than half rate the legal profession's understanding of
computer crime as poor, while a fifth describe it as very poor.