Lords want sloppy software makers held to account

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 6 Oct 2008 at 15:42

The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee is renewing calls for software developers to be held legally liable for security flaws.

The recommendation was first made in the Lords' initial report on Personal Internet Security last summer.

That report was largely dismissed at the time by the Government, which has since had a change of heart, implementing the Lords' suggestion of a central e-crime unit for example.

Perhaps buoyed by this success, the peers will now debate matters such as making software developers liable in the House of Lords on Friday.

"In our initial report we raised concerns that public confidence in the internet could be undermined if more was not done to prevent and prosecute e-crime," claims Lord Broers, who chaired the initial inquiry.

"We felt that the Government, the police and the software developers were failing to meet their responsibilities and were quite unreasonably leaving individual users to fend for themselves.

"Some of our recommendations, such as the establishment of a specialist e-crime police unit, are now being acted on by Government. But others, such as software developers liability for damage caused by security flaws and enabling people to report online fraud directly to the police rather than their bank, have either been ignored or are awaiting action.

"In our follow-up report we committed ourselves to keep an ongoing watch on developments in internet security and to press the Government to do more to ensure that confidence in the internet is maintained.

"This debate will enable members of the House to question the Government on what has been achieved and will allow members of the Committee to reassert their calls for better protection for internet users."