5 years ago... UK cyber-crime spend 'inadequate'

19.01.00: The UK government's £337,000 pledge to set up a 'cybercrime unit' has been dismissed as "inadequate" by industry experts.

Home Secretary Jack Straw said the money will be given to the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) to fight the growth in computer-based crime. But while the move has been broadly welcomed by the industry, experts say the commitment just doesn't take the problem seriously enough.

Nick Lockett, ecommerce solicitor at law firm Sidley & Austin, and a founder of the e-crime unit at government-industry forum, Eurim, said: "It continues, in my view, to exacerbate the existing failure of this government to take a realistic step to combat the growth of e-crime," he said.

19.01.05 Five years on and the same government has continually failed to make in-roads into the growing problems of cybercrime.

And Eurim is still not bowled over by what it sees. Today the company released its latest white paper on the issue of policing cybercrime again criticising the funding made available.

The white paper states: "Current and proposed policing plans appear to be based on an assumption that internet-assisted crime, as well as the need to analyse and present digital evidence related to traditional crime, can be handled by changing structures without providing additional funding."

"The budgets available, including for child protection and related internet safety awareness campaigns, are modest in the extreme."