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Posted: Wed, February 15, 2006
Plugging the £160m Welsh eCrime holeby Sali Earls
Hosted by BBC Wales Today's Jamie Owen, the day began with a keynote presentation from Ian Shannon, Assistant Chief Constable of North Wales Police. Shannon explained the scale of the problem in Wales, telling delegates that at least £160m was lost to eCrime in 2004. He went on to say that although every police force in Wales is investing heavily in eCrime prevention, businesses must take responsibility for themselves and their staff. An interview was broadcast with Andrew Davies, Minister for Economic Development and Transport, Welsh Assembly Government, where the problem was acknowledged in no uncertain terms. The Minister said that Wales was a great place to do business, but he wants it also to be a safe place, and it is in the interest of every business to take the problem seriously and protect themselves. Sir Roger Jones, Chairman of the WDA was also seen in interview, where he stated that businesses in Wales must implement the advice on offer in order that the economy of Wales can grow. Chris Corcoran, Detective Superintendent of North Wales Police, and Chair of the All Wales E-Crime Steering Group, took to the stage to bring delegates up to date with the work of the group. He stated that although criminals had gone high tech, there was good news in the form of initiatives including Get Safe Online and the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit's Confidentiality Charter. In conclusion he explained that Welsh businesses were as much at risk as those elsewhere in the UK, and greater education for business and schools was required at all levels. An eCrime case study of the experiences of South Caernarvon Creameries graphically demonstrated the impact of computer viruses. The first the farmer owned cooperative knew about their problem was when customers started complaining about receiving spam and viruses from them. Investigation uncovered the fact that the business email was being used as a relay to send out mass spam on behalf of a third party. South Caernarvon Creameries have implemented an ERP system, and outsource their IT requirements to Wasp IT to prevent the situation happening again. Tony Neate of the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit gave a hard hitting presentation demonstrating the potential scale of the problem. With statistics including the fact that only 42% of broadband users have a firewall, and some 11,200 new users go online everyday, it is easy to see that the problem is vast. Neate explained the risks including those from serious and organised crime gangs to carry out crime including phishing, extortion, fraud and identity theft. Neate concluded by saying that everyone is a potential victim of eCrime, and education through initiatives like Get Safe Online is critical. Former FBI agent Ed Gibson is now Chief Security Officer at Microsoft, and he gave delegates an overview of Microsoft's trustworthy computing strategy. With over 230 million users of Microsoft's Hotmail, Gibson urged delegates to read the small print before ticking the "I agree" box for online products and services. A change in the industry environment is needed, Gibson claimed, stating that legislation was not enough to solve the problem. Comparing their eCrime experience to losing 30% of staff to sickness, the case study of Powercut, a garden machinery supplier, vividly demonstrated the need for eCrime policies and education. The problems experienced by Powercut were eventually discovered to be as a result of a virus embedded in the memory of a printer. Sangeet Bhullar of WISE KIDS explained the eCrime problem from the community and education perspective. The internet is a dynamic place, she explained, but parents, teachers and businesses face challenges in defining content and interactions suitable for the young. The legal viewpoint was offered by Rehman Noormohammed of Morgan Cole Solicitors, who explained that managing the risk of eCrime was not just an IT problem. Noormohammed ran through the 90 pieces of legislation that businesses must comply with, before moving to the risks posed by employees who have the opportunity, ability and possibly the motivation to commit eCrime. In closing Noormohammed expressed the need for IT security to be a board room issue. Following a day of thought provoking and intense presentations, good news came in the form of the eCrime manifesto and action plan developed by the steering committee. The main challenges highlighted in the manifesto include the requirements of
The Welsh Assembly Government is committed to making Wales a country to do business in safely, with high levels of awareness and protection from eCrime. In order to address the issues of the
manifesto, and meet the ambitions of the Welsh Assembly Government, the action plan proposes four key points
With this event being the only one outside of London, the development of the action plan puts Wales is in a leading position to address the problems of eCrime. Copies of the manifesto and action plan, together with further information about the work of the All Wales E-Crime Steering Group can be found at www.wda.co.uk/ecrime. Useful links: Send a comment about this article to editor@itwales.com. © Copyright ITWales 2006 |
The second Welsh E-Crime Summit took place in Llangollen at the end of January 2006, and
saw international experts tell the two hundred delegates about the threats
we all face from computer crime, and launch an action plan to tackle the problems.|
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