Cyber-crime unit 'urgent'

A petition has been launched calling for the Prime Minister to set up a national e-crime reporting unit as soon as possible.

There are proposals outlined in this year's Comprehensive Spending Review for a new National Fraud Reporting Centre to be set up in 2010-11.

The aim of the centre will be to provide a link between local forces, the public and other law enforcement agencies.

But following the case of lost data discs at HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), the petitioner, security analyst Neil Stinchcombe, said 2010 was too long to wait and is using the petition to highlight the need for the centre to be set up as soon as possible.

Mr Stinchcombe told Computeractive: "The consequences of, and reactions to, the loss of records by HMRC, make the creation of a well-resourced operation to address computer-assisted crime, including information and identity theft from data and call centres… a matter of great urgency."

The problems the public and regional police forces have with reporting and handling individual incidents of cyber-crime is well documented. Local police say they do not have the resources to follow up many of these crimes.

Since April, the public has had to report financial online crime to banks rather than the police. There is also no central unit that can handle the cases of victims of identity theft or scams - once the responsibility of the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU).

The multi-agency force based in London worked with law enforcement experts selected from the National Crime Squad, the National Criminal Intelligence Service, HM Customs and Excise and local police forces.

However, the NHTCU was absorbed into the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) in 2004. SOCA handles serious organised crime and not individual cases, which means members of the public have to report any computer-based crime to local police services, which are kept within that force, making it difficult to gauge the overall scale of cyber-crime.

The plan is for the National Fraud Reporting Centre to be managed by a lead police force centred on the City of London Police and, according to the Attorney General's office, have input from the Metropolitan Police. To ensure overall co-ordination and strategy, there will also be a National Fraud Strategic Authority.

However, the City of London police and the Association of Chief Police Officers would not comment on the petition, which runs until 29 February 2008.