UK needs e-crime consensus

Police must coordinate their approach

A House of Lords committee is considering recommending that the government create a centralised web site to handle the reporting of all electronic crimes.

Lord Broers, chairman of the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee, told delegates at the Infosecurity conference in London last week that the proposed site would provide accurate statistics on the extent of e-crime for the first time.

The site would operate in a similar way to the US-based Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), which is regarded as a central reporting point for the public – see box, right.

At the moment there are several ways in which people can report cyber crimes. Financial offences for example, are handled by banks, while local forces are tasked with other offences.

The Metropolitan Police runs a fraud alert reporting point, but this solely handles fraud and is monitored by just one person.

Broers also believes police should be responsible for the reporting of e-crime, and criticises recent moves to make banks the first point of contact for reporting some online offences.

‘In the UK, people are being told to go to their bank first,’ said Broers. ‘We are not sure that is right. These are crimes and the police should be equipped to deal with them.’

But Commander Sue Wilkinson, head of e-crime at the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), told the Personal Internet Security committee last week that a proposed e-crime co-ordination unit, run by the Metropolitan Police, would almost certainly operate a web site such as the one suggested by the committee.

She says there are concerns that the proposed site will conflict with other reporting points, including a national fraud reporting centre being considered by the City of London Police.

‘So much e-crime relates to fraud that the last thing we need to do now is start talking about a national e-crime reporting centre, which will eat up a lot of money unnecessarily and duplicate this function,’ she said.

Wilkinson says she is talking with the City of London Commissioner about establishing an e-crime reporting function within the fraud centre.

She says offences would still have to be reported to local forces as well as to the proposed e-crime co-ordination unit, which would collect statistics and enable police to handle cases.

‘The ideal situation is a single web portal where people could be guided towards the right place to report their particular type of crime,’ she said.

Sharon Lemon, head of e-crime at the Serious and Organised Crime Agency, says the UK needs a consensus on e-crime reporting and if such a web site existed it would need to be the only reporting point.

‘The US IC3 is very good for analysis and intelligence, but it is not the single reporting centre in the US,’ she said.

‘It only handles two-thirds of US e-crime reporting, with one-third coming through other channels. If we are going to have something, let’s have all the pieces of the puzzle.’

IC3

... in 30 seconds

z The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) is a partnership

between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C), set up in October 2003.

z It handles about two-thirds of e-crime reported in the US. Other reports come through law-enforcement agencies. It aims to gauge the extent of e-crime.

z The site co-ordinates the referral of e-crime reporting and

investigation from law enforcement agencies at federal, state, and local levels.

z IC3 also establishes alliances with industry, enabling it to take advantage of intelligence and expert resources. It also has a newsroom and provides information and advice for businesses and consumers.