[pchelpers] News:Police: We're overwhelmed by e-crime

Tom Espiner ZDNet UK 

Published: 25 Jan 2007 16:57 GMT

The Metropolitan Police have warned that the UK's local police forces
"can no longer cope" with e-crime, and have called for a national unit
to be set up to address the problem.

In a report written by detective chief inspector Charlie McMurdie of the
Met's specialist crime directorate, published on Thursday, the Met said
that a national e-crime unit is needed to tackle cybercrime. This
national e-crime unit would act as a central co-ordination point for
police officers across the country, who are currently struggling to cope
with the threat of e-crime.

The report described cybercrime as "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."

At present, the responsibility for fighting e-crime is split between
different law enforcement units. Serious, or Level 3, crimes are
supposedly handled by the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA),
although it emerged this week that the agency may be struggling to
fulfil its remit. More minor crimes, Levels 1 and 2, are meant to be
dealt with at a local police level.

However, McMurdie's report shows that this approach is failing. She
warned that "specialist [local] e-crime units can no longer cope with
all e-crime".

More here:
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/security/0,1000000189,39285631,00.htm
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John Durham
Site http://modecideas.com
Server hosted on Ubuntu 4.10
Good advice is like good paint. It only works when applied.



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