Tories: Time to wage war on cyber crime

The Conservatives have criticised the government's response to the growing threat from cyber crime and unveiled plans for a national e-crime unit and a dedicated e-crime minister if they win the next election.

Describing the government policy towards e-crime as showing a "lack of clear leadership", shadow home secretary David Davis revealed Tory plans to create a police national cyber crime unit, a minister for e-crime, a fraud and cyber crime complaint centre and to teach "cyber safety" and "cyber security" to children.

Security from A to Z

Click on the links below to find out more...

A is for Antivirus
B is for Botnets
C is for CMA
D is for DDoS
E is for Extradition
F is for Federated identity
G is for Google
H is for Hackers
I is for IM
J is for Jaschan (Sven)
K is for Kids
L is for Love Bug
M is for Microsoft
N is for Neologisms
O is for Orange
P is for Passwords
Q is for Questions
R is for Rootkits
S is for Spyware
T is for Two-factor authentication
U is for USB sticks/devices
V is for Virus variants
W is for Wi-fi
X is for OS X
Y is for You
Z is for Zero-day

Davis also backed silicon.com's calls for Full Disclosure, saying the Conservatives would introduce laws that would force companies to disclose when they lost their customer's details.

Speaking at the e-crime congress in London he mounted a stinging attack on the government's approach to e-crime, in which he called the decision to absorb the National High Tech Crime Unit into the Serious and Organised Crime Office as "absurd".

Davis said that cyber crime attacks to steal and extort money were a multi-billion business that was now worth more than the international illegal drugs trade.

He said: "I see the internet more as a shopping mall for criminals with plenty of ATMs around the place. The government has created data systems that are valuable, vulnerable and attractive to attack.

"But the national approach to this growing threat of cyber crime and cyber terrorism lacks co-ordination, focus or urgency. You are left with the conclusion that the government does not want to do anything about the problem, their thinking seems to be that 'in cyber space nobody can hear you scream'."