Cybercrime: Conservatives unveil their plans

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 highlighted in a new report from the Conservatives. 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.

Against these threats the report stresses that 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 imaginative, and extraordinarily flexible in the face of rapid change,” said the report

Conservative Shadow Home Secretary David Davis launched the report, Cybercrime in the UK – new technology, new opportunities, new threats, that looks at the threats posed by cybercrime and proposes measures to tackle this growing problem.

Speaking at the 2008 e-crime Congress, Mr Davis described cybercrime as a “serious threat to individuals, business and government” and accused Labour of having ignored the issue.

The report outlines a number of proposals to tackle cybercrime, including:

•Creating a new Police National Cybercrime Unit

•Establishing a cybercrime team within the Crow Prosecution Service

•Appointing a single minister responsible for cybercrime

The Shadow Home Secretary promised a Conservative government would take the necessary action to protect “the future security, economic and personal interests of this country”.

And he stressed: “The time to act is now.”