SOCA emphasises value of collaboration in fight against cyber crime

18 March 2010

The Serious Organised Crime Agency has called on industry leaders to help in the global fight against online crime.

In a keynote address to the 2010 e-Crime Congress in London, SOCA e-Crime Senior Manager, Paul Hoare, emphasised the need for strengthened internet governance to expose and disrupt criminal activity.

A united front was essential, he said, in preventing serious criminal organisations from utilising the internet anonymously, purporting to be legitimate businesses, or benefiting from the slow removal of known criminal content.

Paul Hoare told the conference:
“In order to effectively reduce harm caused by internet crime…the arena needs fundamental change. Criminals are well aware that systems intended to ensure that web users are identifiable are remote, weak, and easily compromised. Compounding this is the fact that Regional Internet Registries, which in effect facilitate web presence, have very limited sanction options under current structures.

“This allows, and even encourages, completely anonymous criminal behaviour to grow unchecked, and needs to be designed out of the system.”

Through Interpol, the world’s police and crime-fighting bodies have demonstrated their agreement on the need for a safer and more secure internet framework. SOCA has been active in helping to gain that consensus. The Agency has also undertaken long-term engagement with ICANN, the organisation which develops and agrees policies for the future of the web. ICANN’s membership is comprised largely of internet business interests.

Paul Hoare added:
“Working jointly with the FBI and other global partners, we have produced a recommendation for changes to the domain registration process. This would see minimum standards made a condition of accreditation by ICANN, making the internet a much more hostile environment for criminals.”

He stressed that the proposals were designed to safeguard the privacy of individual users at the same time as making the whole system less open to criminal abuse. After a long consultation process the recommendations were formally acknowledged by national governments in Nairobi last week, and have been submitted to ICANN.

What happens next would be law enforcement’s litmus test of ICANN’s Affirmation of Commitments, Paul Hoare concluded, under which the organisation is obliged to work for the public good.

The e-Crime Congress is an annual event which seeks to balance cyber-crime prevention, detection and response with commercial imperatives and compliance requirements.