The NHTCU
was dissolved into the Serious and Organised Crime Agency (SOCA)
when it was formed in 2005, but critics have said that the change
resulted in a loss of focus on computer crime, which some experts
claim is growing faster than any other kind of crime.
The Home Office has said that it will consider the setting up of
a new national body. The news came as part of the Government’s
response to the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee’s
report into personal internet security.
“The Government will consider the proposals to create a law
enforcement unit to tackle crimes involving computers,” said the
response. “This will be done in conjunction with the proposals for
the development of the National Fraud Reporting Centre, and with
regard to the needs of other agencies.”
Since the disbanding of the NHTCU computer crime has been dealt
with by local forces except where it is deemed to be serious or
organised crime. Critics of that policy say that local forces have
neither the expertise nor the resources to deal with computer crime
and the technical issues it presents.
London’s Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) itself said earlier
this year that it cannot cope with computer crime and called for
the reintroduction of a dedicated service.
“The MPS assessment is that specialist e-crime units can no
longer cope with all e-crime," said DCI McMurdie in a report from
the MPS to the Metropolitan Police Authority, the body that
oversees the Met. The report says that e-crime is a much bigger
problem in the UK than has been previously thought.
"It is widely recognised that e-crime is the most rapidly
expanding form of criminality, encompassing both new criminal
offences in relation to computers (viruses and hacking etc.) and
‘old’ crimes (fraud, harassment etc.), committed using digital or
computer technology," said the report.
The Home Office admitted in its response to the House of Lords
report that there were problems with the current set up.
“We know that [computer] crime is not a problem that sits
comfortably within local policing structures, and that historically
most forces have underinvested in their capacity to respond
effectively to it,” it said. “We therefore believe that national
co-ordination would bring some obvious benefits to the policing of
these crimes.”
It said that the Government would consider the issue as part of
its consideration of the setting up of the national fraud reporting
centre.
The Association of Chief Police Officers told OUT-LAW.COM that
it did not believe a new centre needed to be created. A spokesman
said that its e-crime unit was available to assist local police
forces for some computer crimes, and that SOCA should be able to
deal with others.
Elsewhere in the response, the Government said that it was not
convinced of the need for a law forcing companies to report
publicly all losses of customer or employee data. Some US states
have security breach notification laws, but the government said
there was not sufficient evidence that those laws were
beneficial.
“We are clearly not so convinced as the Committee that this
would immediately lead to an improvement in performance by business
in regard to protecting personal information and we do not see that
it would have any significant impact on other elements of personal
internet safety,” said the Government’s response.
“The experience in the United States has yet to be fully
analysed but there is a strong body of opinion that doubts whether
there has been significant differences to corporate behaviour and
may, in fact, have desensitised consumers to security issues and
undermined confidence in the internet as a business medium.”
The response also dealt with claims that a recent amendment to
the Computer Misuse Act would criminalise security researchers who
created or got hold of computer code that could be used for certain
attacks.
“We note, but do not accept, the Committee’s view that security
researchers are at risk of being criminalised,” said the
government’s response. “We believe that it is right that those in
the legitimate IT security sector, who make, adapt and supply tools
as part of their daily work should have confidence that the new
offence will be used appropriately and be assured that their
practices and procedures fall within the law. The CPS is currently
drafting guidance on how the new section 3A offence will be dealt
with and this will be issued shortly.”
