I used to be a programmer and now I’m a policeman. I’m thinking of using my computer expertise in my new job by becoming a computer cop. Trouble is, in the UK computer crimes are dealt with by 3 different sections of the police: the child protection service deals with paedophiles, the fraud squad deals with credit card fraud, and the computer crimes squad deals with hackers and spammers and the like.
So… I’d like to know what you all think are the things on the internet most requiring police attention, if any? What laws do you think need to be brought in and what help/hindrance do you think we need to make the internet a safer place?
(Note: I’ll probably transfer to the NCIS or Interpol since most computer crime originates from abroad and these agencies are the only ones here that can really deal with that)
Personally, I would say let the banks take the majority of responsibility for credit card fraud and let the software companies take the majority of responsibility for spam and hackers. Note I said majority of responsibility; the police would still need to be involved.
This would allow the police to focus on the areas where nobody else has a vested interest in solving the crimes. This would include paedophiles, slave trading and terrorism.
But the banks still need someone to arrest and compile all of the evidence on the fraudsters.
And when have you ever heard of a software company that actually takes responsibility for malicious use of its software!
Even if a hacker is caught, you still need the police to actually arrest the guy and make it stick. It does require a lot of manpower and resources.
Is spam illegal in the UK? If not, there is not a lot you can do about it - except maybe running down cases of spammed fraud. I can see hacking be blamed on software companies from poor security, but spam?
Is the stuff sold by spam legit, or counterfeit? If it is counterfeit, I’d think that a highly publicized arrest and jail term might cut down on the problem, by increasing the perceived cost of spamming.
Could you do something about those damn Nigerians?
I really don’t think there’s a lot of call for a special “Internet Crime” division. Maybe a subsection of the normal divisions for dealing with cases when the same crimes we already have laws for are committed with the aid of technology (e.g. fraud, child exploitation, etc.).
While spam is a problem, it isn’t illegal (yet) and, since it is already sent by quasi-legal means (exploiting open proxies, unsecured boxes, etc), I don’t expect new laws will have too much of an effect, besides making the semi-legitimate spam easier to filter directly into the trash.
Actually, most of the things I’d complain about regarding the internet would have to deal with the behaviour of ICANN, the VeriSign monopoly, or the suspicious protocols in development on internet2… all of which would be complaints about the internet police being a bunch of unaccountable fatcats and jackbooted thugs.
I would like to see end to end crypto put into place in such a way to ensure privacy, security, and anonymity for all users, if they so choose.