Get Safe Online some thoughts from the summit

GetSafeOnline 
Some thoughts
Today we saw the start of GetSafeOnline week commencing with a short summit in London a range of partners were there to see the launch of a range of initiatives including the Rough Guide

Francis Maude opened the event and talked about the risk, threats and responses to Cybercrime and the need for people to work together as well as the need for everyone to take responsibility

One of his most telling remarks was that the UK is good at Cyber Security and we should
celebrate it more. He outlined the significant additional funding in the £650m Cybercrime programme

It was made clear that the money would not just be thrown at separate initiatives but would be used to support a future more agile strategy and keep us at the cutting edge.
Protecting out cyber world is an important aspect of growth with many firms reliant on safer Internet access

Tony Neate formally launched the Rough Guide and outlined how the week would unfold. Most importantly there was a new threat to smartphones through the use of malicious Apps that could steal, digitally
This was supported by Trend Micro and Symantec, partners of GetSafeOnline

Ian Dyson from the City of London Police outlined aspects of the National Fraud response and it's new links to cybercrime. The hint of joined up thinking is becoming much stronger in this area
He outlined a range of statistics about the size of fraud, one included the £168m cost of online ticket fraud and the £27b cost of cyber fraud

Prof Ian Walden talked about the Information economy
Personal data is the fuel of it and he described the issues around Detection, disruption investigation and prosecution for both Public and private law enforcement

He talked about the new powers and calls for further powers for enforcement in the cybercrime arena. Of real interest were the following, the:

Role of the private sector
Private prosecutions FAST
Forensic source ISPs etc
Reporting Functions CERTs AF
Removal Blocking IWF
Vigilantes dreamcast and Lulz Security hacking group


Rob Skinner outlined the contents of the GetSafeOnline annual report including the State of the nation survey of 1000 adults online. This unsurprisingly showed a massive growth in Social Media, a change in the route of access to mobile above fixed, and exposed some of the risks people still don't manage.

Rik from Trend Micro gave a great demonstration of the impact of the Mobile malware App. All very frightening indeed. Industry has been warning about it but it appears not to have been listened to.
I participated in the panel session at the end along with NFA, SOCA and others.

My closing points are these

We still have some of the best examples of collaboratioin in this field in the world. CEOP, PCeU, NFA, SOCA, IWF are all examples of crossing the public private sector divide and separate us from many countries who have not taken an holistic approach.
It isn't about us al "being in this together" but that only by working together will we get out of it.
Partnering and collaboration is second nature in the national and local enforcement scene, yet it can and should get better. There is always scope to improve.
Despite the current financial situation the citizens of the UK can still rely on enforcement
Industry third sector, academia and Government to work together.

The second issue is that we all have a responsibility whether as a customer or client, business leader or cop, strategist or politician to identify opportunities to make the online world safer. This includes all of us.
Our personal, individual responsibility is in addition to the role of the state, and cannot be replaced by them. So the guidance and advice from GetSafeOnline should be heeded by us all.

So, click now on www.getsafeonline.org and see what you can do to protect your bit of the world and make it a safer place for you and others.