Crime gangs running wild online
p2pnet news | Crime:- Banks, the government and ISPs have come under attack from Britain’s science and technology committee for, “standing by and allowing organised crime to prosper online,” says The Telegraph.
After a six-month committee investigation into online security, the committee singled out the “extraordinary complacency” of the banks but, “warned their failings were being ‘compounded by the apparent indifference at government level’,” says the story.
Now, “The government and police must act to improve online security and stop the internet becoming a “playground of criminals”, says the parliamentary committee,” quoted by Guardian Unlimited.
Because as things stand, the net is a “wild west”, with millions of internet users unnecessarily exposed to crime, says the report, according to the story.
Radical solutions including a new internet crime fighting police unit and an independent web regulator are needed, says the committee.
“You can’t just rely on individuals to take responsibility for their own security,” Guardian Unlimited has Lord Broers, technology veteran and former vice-chancellor of Cambridge University saying.
“They will always be outfoxed by the bad guys. We feel many of the organisations profiting from internet services now need to take their share of the responsibility.”
The days when the e-criminal was a “lonely hacker searching for attention” are long gone, the investigation states, says The Telegraph.
“Today’s ‘bad guys’ belong to organised crime groups, are highly skilful, specialised and focused on profit,” it quoted as saying, adding:
“They want to stay invisible and so far they have largely succeeded.”
Many of the criminal gangs wouldn’t are based in Eastern Europe, it states.
Britain’s House of Lords apparently doesn’t ask why administrations are throwing scarce legal, financial and enforcement resources at so-called ‘copyright crime’ to the exclusive benefit of the entertainment industry, instead of focusing attention on what appears to be a far more urgent problem.
Click the mic on the right to hear David Bannister’s p2pnetcast of this story >>>> 
Also See:
The Telegraph – Crime gangs ‘turning web into Wild West’, August 10, 2007
Guardian Unlimited – Peers want crackdown on web’s ‘wild west’, August 10, 2007
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