Without private sector funding, a proposed national
police unit to fight computer crime could face delays of up to
two years, the police officer leading the initiative has
warned.
The National
E-Crime Co-ordination Unit will train police, collect
intelligence and investigate IT
security breaches, which cost UK businesses £10bn last year,
according to a
PricewaterhouseCoopers report
for the Department of Trade &
Industry.
In an exclusive interview with Computer Weekly, Sue Wilkinson,
e-crime lead at the Association of Chief Police Officers and chief
architect of the initiative, called on the private sector to help
get the £4.5m scheme off the ground.
Wilkinson said she had received political agreement to set up
the unit, but there was a shortfall in funding of at least £1m.
"If I had the money, I could launch it by December," she said.
The lack of funding meant it could take 18 to 24 months to get the
unit up and running, she said.
Wilkinson said the Metropolitan Police could contribute the
£1.5m it spends fighting e-crime to the new unit. And she hoped
that the UK's 43 local police forces would contribute the £1.3m
they receive for their e-crime units. "We are preparing the
business case for them now," she said.
Wilkinson has also applied for £336,000 from the European
Commission.
She invited businesses to contribute expertise and technology to
the National E-Crime Co-ordination Unit. "We have lots of areas
where they can contribute," she said.
Detective chief inspector Charlie McMurdie, who heads operations
at the Met's e-crime unit, said the proposed national unit was
looking for help with programmes for CCTV, PC awareness, basic
training, search and seizure of data, and to train staff who
receive calls about e-crime.
McMurdie said she would welcome technical experts such as data
analysts and network engineers who might like to serve as special
constables.
Wilkinson said training in the use of computers to detect and
investigate crime would be part of constables' basic training in
the future.
She added that digital technology was increasingly part of
general crime, and a key task for the e-crime unit would be to
"mainstream" knowledge of the role technology can play in
committing or facilitating crime.
Wilkinson said that crimes such as hacking and denial of service
attacks did not fit into traditional policing formats. Unlike other
crimes, a single exploit could harm tens of thousands of victims
worldwide in a few minutes. This required a different,
intelligence-based approach, she said.
Met unit looks to
national e-crime role >>
E-crime up six-fold with web-based attacks >>
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