MPs warn UK losing its war on internet criminals

Despite being the preferred target of online criminals in 25 countries, the UK is still “complacent” towards e-crime as victims are “hidden in cyberspace”, the Home Affairs Select Committee said.

The group of MPs said there is insufficient funding and resources for tackling online crime, which includes identity theft, industrial espionage, credit card fraud and child exploitation.

They called for tougher sentences for online criminals and improved training for police officers.

Committee chair Keith Vaz MP said: “We are not winning the war on online criminal activity. We are being too complacent about these e-wars because the victims are hidden in cyberspace.

“The threat of a cyber attack to the UK is so serious it is marked as a higher threat than a nuclear attack.

“You can steal more on the internet than you can by robbing a bank and online criminals in 25 countries have chosen the UK as their number one target. Astonishingly, some are operating from EU countries.

“If we don’t have a 21st century response to this 21st century crime, we will be letting those involved in these gangs off the hook.”

Internet-based crime – committed by lone hackers, activist groups and nation states sponsoring industrial espionage – has been estimated by online security firm Norton to cost around £250bn in financial losses globally.

The committee heard that the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau had discovered about 25 countries predominantly targeting the UK and it was “deeply concerned” that EU partner countries were not doing enough to prevent cyber attacks from criminals on the UK.

In light of the rise of e-crime, the group of MPs recommended more police officers are trained in digital crime detection and equipped with digital forensic skills.

Commissioner Adrian Leppard, of City of London Police, the country’s top policeman on online fraud, also told the committee the UK was not winning the war on e-crime and warned that a quarter of the 800 specialist internet crime officers could be axed as spending is cut.

The committee said it was “clear that sufficient funding and resources have not been allocated to the law enforcement responsible for tackling” e-crime.

Concern was also expressed that penalties for cyber criminals were too lenient, following the sentencing of hackers from the group Anonymous, who cost Paypal more than £3.5m, to jail terms of seven and 18 months.

The committee called on the Director of Public Prosecutions, the head of the Crown Prosecution Service, to review sentencing guidance.

Turning to the issue of online sexual offending, the committee expressed alarm that the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) centre was having its budget cut by 10 per cent over four years.

It also proposed a service similar to anti-online child abuse group Internet Watch Foundation to be formed for tackling the spread of terrorist material online.

A Home Office spokesman defended the Government’s record, saying it was investing more than £850m through the national cyber security programme to “develop and maintain cutting-edge capabilities”.

He added: “The National Crime Agency will include a new elite National Cyber Crime unit to target the most serious offenders and provide enhanced intelligence for CEOP so they can protect even more children from harm.

“But we know we need to keep pace with criminals as they target the web and so we continue to consider ways to ensure the police and security services have access to communications data.”