11 Oct 2007
Calls for an ID tsar to tackle the growing problem of identity fraud are misjudged.
The idea is being proposed by an all-party committee of MPs to provide a fulcrum for a problem that touches such a wide range of issues. So far, so good.
Further reading
But in reality, the high-tech crime arena already suffers from too many, rather than too few, focal points.
It is an impressive list: the Serious Fraud Office, the Information
Commissioner, the former National Hi-Tech Crime Unit (NHCTU) now absorbed into
the Serious Organised Crime Agency, the fledgling
National
eCrime Co-ordination Unit being set up at the Metropolitan Police to replace
the management aspect of NHCTU’s role.
With so many co-ordinators already, is there really room, let alone a
requirement, for more?
The committee also wants an extension of the Information Commissioner’s
powers. Again, the recommendation is superficially sound. Computing
has been reporting for years on the limitations of the role, and calls for more
clout should be supported.
But creating a tsar with an overlapping remit will cancel out the benefits and
leave us back where we started.
Green whip for on-demand IT
Major software suppliers are increasingly working on plans to make their applications accessible to businesses over the internet rather than through the usual licensing model. And, according to IDC, green regulations will push more firms to put their datacentre function into the hands of a third party.
Software-on-demand and outsourcing are two sides of the same coin. The concept of utility computing has been talked of for years, but the green agenda may be the final piece in the jigsaw.
The growing demand for services that relieve business of the burden of meeting environmental rules may establish the certainty needed for IT suppliers to invest in the necessary technical developments.
For so long a glimpse of the future, environmental pressures may yet turn utility computing into a reality.
It's typical of the current government to think that more law reduces crime, the same flawed logic that would suggest taking a few cops off the beat and promoting them to chief inspector will solve crime in an area. What is needed is fewer people pontificating about what we should do about IT crime and more people actually tackling it. From the few comments I have read on the subject of "low level" IT crime (like not paying for something on eBay) it is not taken seriously by the police and in this particular example eBay itself would be expected to chase down the villain. Similarly if you walk into a local police station the response that you get will tend to be better if the sargeant at the desk happens to be a computer hobbyist or not, as far as I can deduce. My source is reading about reported incidents (this is of course just hearsay, but I can believe it.) Until the police are properly resourced and trained to take IT crime as seriously as "normal" crime then not much progress will be made. This probably means at least one properly IT-trained computer crime officer in every major station and a management structure to co-ordinate them.
Posted by: Robert McCord 11 Jan 2008
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