UK financial institutions have welcomed a government call for greater protection for internet users, after a report was released by the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee highlighting the threat to the future of the internet posed by e-crime.
In the report, the Lords Committee recommended a range of measures that would increase the resources and skills available to the police and criminal justice system to catch and prosecute e-criminals; provide incentives to banks and other companies trading online to improve the data security by establishing a data security breach notification law; and improve standards of new software and hardware by taking the first steps towards the establishment of legal liability for damage resulting from security flaws.
The committee also recommended that the government should review, as a matter of urgency, its decision to require online frauds to be reported to banks rather than the police in the first instance.
Cristina Hoole, spokesperson for PayPal, commented: The security of people who use the internet and shop online must become a top priority, not just for the government but also software vendors, if the ongoing threat of e-crime is to be culled. Continued proactive action needs to be taken so that people in the UK are not put at risk.
UK payments association Apacs also revealed that the UK banking industry welcomed the report, and that over the last three years since these online threats emerged, the industry has been extremely proactive in raising awareness among its customers and educating them on the need to ensure the security of their computers.