Sunday 2 March 2008

Urgent need for internet security review

Internet security From Computeractive 21/02/08:

The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee has announced a follow-up inquiry to its Personal Internet Security report.

It is taking the measure after its “disappointment” with the way the Government dismissed the vast majority of its recommendations last October.

The report, published in August 2007, called on the Government to take strong measures to protect against internet crime. It branded the web as a “playground for criminals” and made 23 recommendations it said would help instill public confidence in the internet.

They included a kite mark scheme for internet service providers and security software. It also wanted to make software manufacturers legally responsible for security flaws and establish a central e-crime police unit.

These recommendations were dismissed by the Government, which led to Committee member Lord Erroll accusing it of "putting its head in the sand".

The Committee plans to release its new report soon after Easter

Good though (some of) these recommendations are, I don’t see any of them coming to fruition anytime soon. It’s going to take a massive shake-up, change of culture and approach for some of them to ever be seriously considered, let alone implemented. Short of a massive internet security disaster, most won’t ever see the light of day. Still, we watch and wait in vague anticipation.

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