Straw recruits 80 'cybercops' in £25m initiative

The recruits are part of a £25m initiative to combat net-related criminal activity, part of the government's stated aim to make the UK "one of the best and safest places in the world to conduct and engage in ecommerce".

Back in January, Straw announced the government was to spend £337,000 in setting up a National Computer Crime Unit under the aegis of the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS), a sum which many in the industry claimed was inadequate.

The £25m will fund up to 40 dedicated investigators based at what is now the multi-agency National Hi-Tech Crime Unit, and up to 46 officers in local forces.

The £25m is coming from existing Home Office budgets allocated to police in England and Wales.

The unit is designed to offer a national and local capability for combating cybercrime. Nationally, the unit will investigate attacks on the key parts of the national infrastructure; major internet-based offences of paedophilia, fraud or extortion; information from seized electronic media; and gather intelligence on cybercrime and cybercriminals.

This will be supported by work in local police forces to investigate crimes committed on computers, help with requests for information from overseas and provide intelligence.

The Home Secretary also announced a £37m investment in a National Management Information System (NMIS) for police forces in England and Wales.

NMIS will provide the police with a comprehensive information management and analysis tool, joining-up data held on the various information technology systems from every force and area of police work. The system will present this data in a consistent format so the whole range of police business can be easily and reliably compared and analysed across the country.