Can the DTI make e-trade safe?

Businesses have been trying to raise consumer confidence in ecommerce and allay users' security fears ever since the advent of the web.

The government has launched several initiatives in the past few years to promote internet security in the UK, but many of these schemes have failed to achieve their objectives.

In November last year, the Home Office pledged £25m to help establish the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit, a law enforcement agency set up to fight computer crime and make the UK a safer place for ebusiness.

The unit was officially launched in April but faced early problems recruiting staff with appropriate qualifications because it had difficulty competing with the wages of the private sector.

It has now moved to headquarters in London's Docklands, but critics say it is still not working effectively with industry to promote best practices for security.

Fraud squad

More recent initiatives from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) have focused on fighting fraud in the UK, boosting ebusiness confidence and increasing ecommerce security.

However, research has shown that, although confidence in online commerce is rising, many consumers and businesses are still reluctant to participate in internet trading because of concerns over security and privacy.

As a response, the DTI has invested £3m in four university research projects as part of its Security at Work initiative. The four universities - Umist, Paisley, York and Manchester - will look at barriers to ecommerce and will develop software to improve e-trading processes and combat mobile phone fraud and benefit fraud.

Separately, the DTI has also launched a guide to biometric security based on physical attributes. It wants to highlight how the UK has pioneered biometric technologies, such as voice, face and iris scanning.

The DTI believes that biometrics will provide important tools for security, authentication and crime prevention, and its guide advises businesses on how to use this technology to improve system security.

Too little, too late

But critics say that the recent initiatives do not do enough to raise confidence in e-trade and promote awareness of the complexities of biometrics.

The DTI promised £2.7m last year for biometric research, but so far this has only led to a promotional brochure.

A spokesman for biometrics systems developer Keyware said that, although awareness of biometric security is increasing, misunderstandings remain regarding the difference between recognition technologies designed to identify one person from a crowd, and verification systems designed to identify all individuals, via a fingerprint scanner, for example.

He added that there is a need to educate companies and users "to ensure that people are aware that biometrics are not used as an intrusion of privacy, but as a protection of it".

Frank Doehler, European technical services manager at security firm Rainbow, praised the DTI for raising awareness of technologies such as biometrics and smartcards, but warned that the separate initiative to raise confidence in ecommerce security is too little, too late. "Such a task would certainly take more than £3m," he said.

Mike Jones, director of strategic alliances at online payment specialist CyberSource Europe, argued that the DTI would do better to work with industry to increase confidence in online trading, rather than attempt to carry out its own research and development projects.

"As a marketing fund, the £3m could make a huge difference, but it would make more sense for the DTI to work directly with industry, particularly the payment industry, to enhance security and encourage business involvement," he said.