Cybercrimepolicydocument.docVIP

Cybercrime in the UK new technology ● new opportunities ● new threats ●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●  Cybercrime in the UK ●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●● A massive Chinese cyber-espionage attack on both government and commercial computer systems in Britain, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, India and the USA; a ‘cyber-riot’ which shut down banking and government websites in Estonia for weeks; the deployment of new, sophisticated software such as the so-called ‘Storm Worm’ that has hijacked hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of computers, creating a massive network of computing power that can be deployed to mount so-called ‘botnet attacks’; and the creation of thriving markets that trade identity details at extraordinary cheap prices. Those are just some of the ‘headline’ threats to personal, commercial and national security that are known to exist in these days of the web-enabled society. More are coming. They will include so-called p-to-p industrial espionage, a range of new crimes, up to and including paedophilia, arising from the intrinsic insecurity of social networks such as Facebook, and potentially new forms of terrorism attacking critical infrastructure through worms and viruses on public networks. Much of this cyber-crime feeds on cyber-carelessness. Companies underestimate the risk. People may not be fully aware - or just careless - about protecting their private data. But most of all, governments – most obviously the British Government – irresponsibly underestimate both the value and the risk inherent in the vast database of personal information that they insist on creating. And out of this cyber-carelessness comes cyber-crime, cyber-terrorism, and cyber-chaos. Against these threats the Government will need to take aggressive, intelligent and persistent action. This action will need to be international, since this is a criminal market that recognises no frontiers. It will need to be forward looking and