Government's grovelling apology for Lords net security snub

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 21 May 2008 at 11:05

A Home Office minister has issued a public apology for the Government's dismissive response to the Lords' report into personal internet security.

The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee accused the Government of "putting its head in the sand" after it dismissed the vast majority of recommendations in last summer's report.

The Government's response to the report said it "would refute the suggestion that the public has lost confidence in the internet and that lawlessness is rife", leading the Lords' technical adviser Dr Richard Clayton to ask whether the Government was "ignorant, stupid, or in the thrall of some special interest group?"

Now, in a new evidence session in front of the Lords committee, Government minister Vernon Coaker MP issued a grovelling apology for its response. "Can I just apologise to all of the committee if they felt our response was over-defensive," Coaker claimed. "The report produced by this committee a few months ago now has actually helped drive the agenda forward and certainly the resubmission of evidence and rethinking that that has caused has also helped. Can I apologise to all... there was no disrespect meant to the committee."

Tackling e-crime

Coaker went on to explain how the Government was proceeding with one of the Lords' key recommendations: the establishment of a central unit for reporting e-crime.

"What we'd like to develop, as part of the National Fraud Reporting Centre (NFRC) is an integrated approach to reporting e-crime," he claimed. "We'd like to see all reports of fraud sent to NRFC. [It will become] almost a one-stop shop for reporting fraud, a large part of which will be internet crime."

Coaker said the Home Office was taking advice from the US Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) on how to set up the NRFC, but admitted that funds still need to be found to pursue the criminals identified by the centre.

"If all of these reports of fraud are going to the NFRC, it's the famous 'so what' question," he said. "What happens after that? Within reason the Home Office will look to fund a law enforcement capability alongside NFRC."