The government's accession to public calls for a national
e-crime unit has been widely welcomed, but its lack of a budget
and a clear reporting structure could mean it will be some time
before the current gap in cyberpolicing is filled.
Home Office minister Vernon Coaker told the House of Lords
select committee on science and technology last month that the
government takes e-crime seriously, in the first public indication
of government support for the new unit.
The new e-crime unit is widely expected to form part of the
emerging
National Fraud Reporting Centre (NFRC), which will be run by
the national Fraud Strategic Authority.
The City of London Police, whose economic crime unit is likely
to form the core of the NFRC, is to pilot a database to capture
e-crime information, starting this summer. It will gather
information from four groups representing the private and public
sector.
However, the shape and nature of the proposed e-crime unit are
still unclear. Some say that it should act purely as an
intelligence gathering, assessment and reporting agency. Others
believe the global and ill-defined nature or e-crime means it
should have an operational capability to deter and investigate
e-crime.
A meeting scheduled last week between Home Office minister
Vernon Coaker and the Association of Chief Police Officers' (ACPO)
lead on e-crime deputy assistant commissioner Janet Williams was
expected to resolve some of these issues.
Proposals for national e-crime unit go back to the early days of
the present Labour government. It set up the National High-Tech
Crime Unit shortly after coming to power. It was well-received by
the public and businesses, which reported suspected e-crimes to
it.
The unit was highly selective in the cases it investigated, but
it enjoyed a conviction rate of more than 70%. On this measure, it
laid claim to be one of the most effective crime-fighting forces in
the UK.
That is why news that the Serious and Organised Crime Agency
would absorb the NHCTU surprised many observers. Although it was
plain that fighting terrorism was important, businesses worried
that the government would ignore commercial abuses, such as
hacking, phishing and denial of service attacks.
At the time, the government said victims should report these to
their local police forces, or their banks. Those who did had mixed
results. Local forces were often ill-equiped to deal with the
complaints.
Many experts pointed out that the e-crimes faced by businesses
were often national and international in scope. They were also the
work of relatively few people. The failure of the police to collect
data on incidents made it harder to discern patterns and react
appropriately, they said.
Commander Sue Wilkinson, e-criome lead for the Association of
Cheif Police Officers prepared a two-part business plan for a
national e-crime unit in Summer 2007 to address these
criticisms.
The first task would be to record and assess all reported
e-crimes from whatever source, including the public. It would pass
the resulting intelligence to whichever of the UK's 43 police
forces was best-equipped to investigate it. This would cost £1.3m.
A more ambitious version, at £4.5m, added investigatory
capabilities to the unit and set it up as a national centre of
excellence on e-crime.
Shortly after the business plan emerged the project hit delays
as a succession of people took over responsibility for the project.
Wilkinson took a job in Australia. Meanwhile, Wilkinson's deputy,
the Met's detective chief inspector Charlie McMurdie took over
until ACPO appointed Janet Williams as lead on e-crime.
Opposition politicians have supported ACPO's lobbying for a
separate national e-crime unit. A house of Lords committee called
on the government to make the funds to set up the unit available
"without delay". The government's initial response was to ignore
the calls.
That was a year ago. Since then, Soca has reported that more and
more criminals are using the internet to commit crimes ranging from
identity theft to fraud. Very often the fruits of these activities
fund more serious crimes such as people smuggling, drug and arms
trafficking, and terrorism. Nothing has been decided on the future
of the proposed unit, but the government appears to be softening
its stance.