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Collaborate or ecrime will continue
The House of Lords' ‘Personal Internet Security’ report, published last Friday, has caused some debate and Memex, intelligence and information sharing experts, believes that the debate should be kept high on the agenda.
Memex believes the severity of e-crime will continue and that organisations within the public and private sector should be pulling together to build a dynamic framework that can help combat organised e-crime.
Commenting on the report, Mark Gibson, Senior Vice President of Operations, at Memex, an intelligence management software company said, “To put the onus on the Government and police for the prevention of internet crime is overly simplistic. Of course they play a critical role in tackling e-crime, but what’s required is a collaborative approach, where stakeholders act as a community in order to defeat the criminals. The protection of individuals is of paramount importance as it would be detrimental to society and to business if people shunned the internet due to fear of e-crime. But a collaborative approach, underpinned by robust intelligence systems, is essential to effectively tackle these crimes and allay people’s fears.
"This report is just one of several recent initiatives to bring e-crime out in the open, which I welcome. The challenge now is to solve the crime and catch the perpetrators.
Although the police were established to handle real-world crime, there is no reason why they are not well positioned to solve internet crime. Already, the police rely on intelligence systems to help them predict, prevent and respond to new threats that didn’t exist a decade ago.
"While the report calls for greater investment from Government, let’s not forget that the police are already equipped with many of the necessary tools to be able to gather information from diverse sources, form a cohesive picture and prosecute the criminals behind e-crime. The important next step is for the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) and the UK police to establish a dynamic framework where e-crime is reported by all those affected by it, from individual citizens through to corporations and government agencies. On top of this, greater intelligence sharing between countries and international organisations is vital; after all, e-crime transcends borders. Through analysing and securely sharing this data, the police will be able to piece together the jigsaw and solve the crime.
"This intelligence-based approach to catching the perpetrators of e-crime is critical not only to reducing criminality but restoring the public’s faith in the internet.”
