Whitehall acts to marshal UK’s security expertise in fight against cybercrime. Home Office aims to create a co-ordinated UKcomputer crime strategy. The UK is awash with expertise on IT security, in businesses, among IT suppliers, in central and local government, the police and the security services. So far there have only been sporadic attempts to bring this expertise together in a co-ordinated way to tackle the threats posed by viruses, hacking and other forms of computer crime. This looks set to change with news that Home Office is developing a computer crime strategy for the UK that will attempt to co-ordinate computer crime resources across a wide range of public and private sector bodies. The work is still in its early stages, but some of the ideas that have been put forward to the Home Office are beginning to attract interest. They include the creation of industry-based “IT special constables” to assist the police, “cyberhood watch” schemes to alert small businesses of imminent threats, and a review of computer crime laws. Full Story