Posted: 06th Mar, 2003 By: MarkJ
Scotland Yard has today hit back at UK ISPs over poor co-operation relating to the investigation of computer crimes, such as tracing hackers.
Detective sergeant Steve Santorelli claims that some services have been turning down legitimate requests for commercial reasons:
"The problem is that ISPs are in a commercial business and they see no pound value in co-operating with the police," he said. "It is a problem that we are going to face constantly as time goes on. Short of a change in the legal system, we have to rely on their good will."
The disclosure will raise questions about the adequacy of the Single Point of Contact (Spoc) system, used by police and other law enforcement agencies to channel requests for data, known as section 29.3 notices, to internet and telephone companies. The computer crime unit said it is often easier and quicker to secure information needed for investigations from overseas ISPs than from some UK firms.
"There is one particular ISP that recently declined to release details of a subscriber with a particular internet address because we were not investigating an incident involving terrorism or paedophilia. That is unacceptable for everyone when our core business is investigating hackers and virus writers," said Santorelli.Unfortunately such comments are only likely to strengthen the governments position on Internet snooping. More @
CW360.