The Government decides to ignore e-crime

[HEXUS]

A press release from the House Of Lords Science and Technology Committee has highlighted the Government's stance on e-crime... which is, apparently, to do bugger all about it.

Read more.

[DeSean]

But then again, what would you expect from a Government run by a man none of us were offered the chance to vote into power?

I don't know what's going on at Hexus at the moment but this is blatant propaganda. Frankly, the only excuse, in my view, is that you are trying to stir up some debate and make mugs like me respond.

I'm far from being a Gordon Brown fan, and our political system has become more presidential recently making the role and personality of the PM more important. But in this country you elect a governing party, not a Prime Minister. The front page of Hexus is, in my opinion, not the place to whine about our political system or present government without a bit more context and debate.

[mcmiller]

lol how is it propaganda, the public wasnt allowed to vote on who was to be prime minister so what is the problem

[shadowmaster]

lol how is it propaganda, the public wasnt allowed to vote on who was to be prime minister so what is the problem

But we did vote in a labour goverment, which also should take some of the blame for this e crime issue.

[JPreston]

lol how is it propaganda, the public wasnt allowed to vote on who was to be prime minister so what is the problem

The public never vote on who is to be prime minister, so to suggest the current govt is unusual in that respect indicates either bias or ignorance. Displaying either on the front page is detrimental to the site, TBH.

[Mblaster]

The public never vote on who is to be prime minister, so to suggest the current govt is unusual in that respect indicates either bias or ignorance. Displaying either on the front page is detrimental to the site, TBH.

I have to agree there.

On another note:

We heard compelling evidence of substantial amounts of e-crime and we were entirely persuaded that individuals were unable, on their own, to continue to keep themselves secure.

I am yet to see any convincing 'e-cirme' to someone who knows what they are doing, so saying people are unable to keep themselfs safe on their own is just being ignorant. It may well be the case that the majority of people using the internet lack the knowledge to do this, but I believe it's a persons' own responsability to make sure they have the knowledge to use the internet safely.

Although a few of the ideas are good, such as providing "incentives to banks and other companies trading online to improve the data security by establishing a data security breach notification law".

But the reality is, as long as you can host a web server anywhere in the world, e-crime will always continue.

[Stoo]

So when the government tell you to wise up and they can't do everything for you they get moaned at for being uncaring and doing nothing about issue x, but if they act on things it's a nanny state..

Can't really win either way can they?

[nichomach]

What immediately strikes me is that much of what's referred to as "e-crime" (I assume to make it look sexier) is just the same old offences committed in new ways; fraud, theft, harassment etc. The laws are already in place to deal with these, and I'm yet to see a convincing argument that existing legislation doesn't adequately cover these. Application of that legislation is reactive, certainly, but the same is true with regard to any crime.

The fact is that after RIPA, and the massive erosion of civil liberties by not just the current government but its predecessors, I'm extremely leery of any proactive measures that any government of any stripe might put into place. The last thing that I'd want to see is an "e-crime" panic being used as a justification for even more draconian measures.

If the government want to educate, fine. If they want to advise, fine. If they want to legislate/regulate, no. Sorry. I just don't trust them to do that anymore - and it'd be the same whichever party was in power.

[UltraMagnus]

quite frankly, just about all "e crime" is getting idiots to send you their credit card number or putting virii on peoples computers that use limewire with no firewall or antivirus (yes, i have seen that!) the best way to protect anyone that stupid is to take their computer away

[Mblaster]

So when the government tell you to wise up and they can't do everything for you they get moaned at for being uncaring and doing nothing about issue x, but if they act on things it's a nanny state..

Can't really win either way can they?

Well, they're not gonna please the whole population, and people who are happy about things don't tend to make a big noise about it. So whatever happens there's gonna be people against it, and those are the people you will hear from.