Chairman of the keynote, secretary general EUR/M Philip Virgo, said that in the UK there was “little agreement over who should do what” in the UK. He added that there “does appear to be agreement that there should be kind of partnership.”
McMurdie stressed that “We’ve said all along we can’t do this by ourselves, but we have 43 police forces in the UK – each unit needs some standards of response to the public….Currently everyone’s doing their own thing in different ways.”
She said that the PCeU were working towards establishing a national reporting centre for e-crime issues and stressed that “we need to put resources where it’s going to have the most impact.”
Giving her forecast for the future, McMurdie highlighted the need to bring together a ‘retail taskforce’, noting that organisations within the retail industry would see the same fraudulent transactions occurring and the same IPs. “Let’s bring them together,” she suggested. McMurdie added that the PCeU were also working with Interpol and Europol, but said that “Cybercrime is growing – my resources aren’t.”
Michael pointed out that “Trying to tackle crime works better if you understand the problems from the start, and plan.”
He observed that the public were aware of the prominence of crime.
“The recession is drawing people to look for cheap online deals, at the same time, fear of fraud is rising with 88% of the UK population worried about having their bank details stolen online.”
Michael stated that “as with the wider society, it’s all of us” who must police the internet. “It’s the people, stupid.”
When asked if there were possibilities for industry professionals to assist in policing the internet, McMurdie insisted:
“I will take on volunteers – I will put them through a security vetting process – we’ll look at what your skills are. We already have some members, either sponsored by their own company, or by their own volition.”
Paraphrasing the Edmund Burke quote, Michael added that “All that’s required for the triumph of evil is for people of goodwill to do nothing.”