NESTA Crime Online - University of Brighton Repository

In the UK a national initiative is urgently required, which is followed up at a regional
level and in international forums. The UK should co-ordinate the national fight against
cybercrime in partnership with other international actors. For this purpose, combining
resources and sharing information across national, regional and international intelligence
forces becomes crucial. European Union member states need to make common cause.
Given that so many cybercrime operations take place in developing countries, aid
agencies need to be persuaded to become significant stakeholders – having already
become involved in police reform programmes, this is an institutionally legitimate area
of development.
The value chain analysis illustrates the disperse nature of cybercrime – multiple actors
involved in the processes of detecting vulnerabilities, infection, distribution and
exploitation – which makes it difficult to identify the criminals. Once crimes are
perpetrated, there is a question as to who bears the costs? In this process, the victims
of cybercrime – often individuals – tend to become powerless receiving mixed
information from police, banks or retailers. One of our interviewees 245 strongly
recommended that the protection of citizens needs to be at the heart of any new
initiatives to combat cybercrime.
The fundamental problem within the private sector is transparency. Simply put, the high
street banks have been reluctant to release adequate information. The recent,
fundamental shift in the relationship between these institutions and government as a
result of the financial crisis should be used to apply leverage to encourage greater
information sharing and analysis. It is also unclear to what extent the banks work
together in this area but there is a strong suspicion that efforts are atomised, whereas
cooperation would offer a far better use of resources. Banks should also be encouraged
to pledge a percentage of profits or turnover to combating cybercrime.
A similar response is required in relation to the independent security firms that track and
analyse cybercrime. There is little transparency with regard to capabilities and
methodologies. In the absence of such information, there is a tendency to suspect that
245 Interview with Michael Hallowes, National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA), 2 nd April 2009.
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