National security & IT: UK needs more high tech police resource :: PublicTechnology.net :: e-Government & public sector IT news + job vacancies:

An elite squad of specialist investigators will take on the new challenge of fighting modern organised crime, the Home Secretary has announced. The National Hi-Tech Crime Unit will come under the remit of the new agency, and be a key tool in fighting the potential threats and security breaches inherent when we get to a fully 'e-Governmented' UK.

Modern organised criminals operate across global networks using hi-tech communications and technology. UK banks (and especially online ones) already get numerous sustained in-bound attacks from serious organised crime every day, much originating from Eastern Europe or Russia.

UK faces major security threats
When the UK has more widely joined-up eGovernment, spanning the major new NHS projects contracted over the past few weeks, IEG3 fully implemented, and educational IT fully linked in to the NGfL, there will be so many networked desktops that IT security will become a national issue.

So far worms like MyDoom have not carried any 'dangerous' payload, and have actually caused little damage. Imagine though, a similar worm, spreading automaticaly without human triggering (ie via email send) targeted solely at the NHS data spine, the NGfL and the new Government Secure Intranet 9swictedh on last week). If it were one designed to seek, corrupt and delete databases, operating system files, the email systems themselves - it could cripple may governmental systems. NHS patients could die.

If it were planned to happened one month before the next general election, it could change the country's Government.

The single organised crime agency will bring together the responsibilities which currently fall to the National Criminal Intelligence Service, the National Crime Squad, Home Office responsibilities for organised immigration crime and the investigation and intelligence responsibilities of HM Customs and Excise in tackling serious drug trafficking and recovering related criminal assets. It will be centrally funded, and the earliest legislative opportunity will be sought to seek Parliament's approval for the necessary legislative changes needed to create the new agency.

A Taskforce is being set up to consider the most appropriate form of governance for the single agency. It will comprise representatives of each organisation that will make up the single organised crime agency, will consult widely with stakeholders and report to Ministers within a month.The Government will be appointing an executive search agency immediately to help in the quest for a Chairman and Director-General.

But will the Serious Organised Crime Agency have all the tools to cope?
The new UK-wide Serious Organised Crime Agency will bring together world-class experts including hi-tech and financial specialists and those with criminal intelligence and investigative skills. The Home Office is ebullient when it says that the new unit will exploit technology to uncover the new wave of crime bosses whose lucrative illegal enterprises range from drug trafficking and people smuggling through to fraud and money laundering.

Publictechnology.net would like to see a higher profile for eGovernment security as IEG3 comes to fruition, and the large NHS contracts bring out their project plans into the open.

The Government has also announced that a comprehensive strategy to target organised criminals, including tough new legislation, will be set out shortly.

The Home Secretary, David Blunkett, said:

"Organised criminals make their millions from human misery - trafficking in drugs and people, engaging in fraud and extortion. They control criminal empires that reach from the other side of the world to the dealer on the street corner. They believe they are beyond the reach of justice and out of our sights. That is not the case - no-one should be untraceable and no-one should be untouchable. This new agency will focus on tracking them down.

"Modern organised criminals are sophisticated, organised and well- resourced entrepreneurs. We need to respond to this changing criminal threat, harness the skills of non-traditional investigators like accountants and legal experts and combine these with our world-class detectives and intelligence officers. We must become better organised, more sophisticated and more technologically capable than the criminals. We must not just keep pace but have to get ahead of them.

"The Government has already tightened the focus on organised criminality but we cannot stand still. As part of our strategy to keep ahead of the game it is time to move onto the next stage. Following consultation with key bodies we have agreed the way forward on important structural changes, forging a new body best placed to tackle the 21st century crime challenge.

"Combining the UK's best intelligence expertise with our investigative operational talent, the new agency will co-operate closely with police forces while taking national responsibility for combating national and international criminal groups. It will work hand in glove with the security services and target those who are causing the greatest harm to our communities with their evil trades.

"The damage inflicted on our communities by organised crime groups is real and tangible. These people trade in misery and fear for the sake of profit. People traffickers exploit vulnerable people and are responsible for 70% of illegal migrants to the EU according to Europol estimates.

"Organised drugs traffickers import the heroin and cocaine which ends up on our streets. The drug addict, trapped into a cycle of crime to pay for his habit, steals from his neighbours. Organised crime is not victimless, it affect all of us. Organised criminals should be under no illusion, there is no hiding place from the law.

"There will be no relaxation in our existing efforts to tackle organised crime while we put in place the new structures. Our existing organised crime agencies will continue combating organised crime with determination, professionalism and above all, with continued success."

Organised crime and its pernicious effects impact on the UK's communities, causing crime and creating a climate of fear. Organised criminals make money by creating markets for their trade, which in turn creates victims of crime. For example, one kilo of heroin trafficked and sold on a UK street can result in 220 victims of burglary as #250,000 of property is stolen by addicts to fuel their habit.

A policy paper, to be published next month, will set out the Government's comprehensive strategy to tackle organised crime and arrangements for the new agency in more detail.