UK must take cybercrime-busting lead

A government project announced today is urging the UK to take the lead in making cyberspace a trusted place to work and to not let progress come at the cost of security.

The project acknowledges that IT will continue to be a major driver of GDP in the UK and expects its influence to become greater year-on-year.

However, it warns of the habit new technologies can have of creating a new media for criminals and new opportunities for those set of breaking the law -- as witnessed by the rise in card fraud relative to the rise in ecommerce, or the current trend for blackmailing businesses with the threat of denial of service attacks.

Sir David King, the UK government's chief scientific adviser, who is chairing the Foresight Cyber Trust and Crime Prevention project, said: "This report will help us plan today for the UK of tomorrow: one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world in which information technologies continue to enhance the quality of life."

The project's aims are to ensure the UK is able to maintain its position as a leading IT player, ensure new technologies continue to raise GDP and improve quality of life, enable technology to beat existing crime and ensure new technologies do not create new kinds of crime.

Those latter goals may become the hardest to meet - as recent history has shown the tendency for crime fighting in the digital age to be reactive rather than proactive.

It is almost inevitable that new technologies will cause a rise in related crimes.

According to the report more than two-thirds of businesses have experienced an IT-related security breach in the past year. The most common has been computer viruses (68 per cent), followed by staff abusing the network (64 per cent).

The Cyber Trust and Crime Prevention project brought together a team of more than 40 academics and consulted with 250 industry experts.