Lords call for an end to cyberspace wild west

In a parliamentary report published today peers have criticised the government for their lack of action against online crime.

The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee have released a report depicting the internet as a den of iniquity, where e-criminals run the roost. Now they have attacked the government for not taking adequate action to protect online users and are demanding change. The chairman of the committee said in an interview that the government’s current laissez-faire attitude was impractical and inefficient. The Home Office this week replied by saying they are investigating the report and will soon respond to it. The committee was quick to emphasise that whilst they recognise the virtues of the internet for good, they also said that the incredible rise in online fraud had to be tackled imminently. They recommended strategies such as implementing a central system for e-crime reporting, making more resources available to the police and criminal justice system in order to find and take legal action against e-criminals, and more incentives to online businesses to report security breaches. It is clear that this action is greatly needed, as last year alone online fraud cost UK banks upwards of £33.5 million. The UK internet system is seen as one of the weakest in the world for security, and this is something the committee eagerly wish to change.

The security firm Kaspersky Lab concurred with the committee’s findings, and said that implementing the changes they suggested could at least identify the scope of the problem which was the first stage to dealing with it. However, the Lords Committee did admit that the government could not manage this problem alone, and that responsibility for protecting online users also lay with the IT industry, software vendors, banks, internet traders, and the internet service providers. However they stressed that primarily the government were responsible for protecting British internet users, through providing funding for better data protection and law enforcement.

Sources:

Times Online
Guardian
BBC News