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| Specialist cybercrime prosecutors may be more
successful at putting criminals behind bars. |
Sophos, a world leader in protecting businesses against viruses,
spyware and spam, has welcomed news that the UK Crown Prosecution
Service (CPS) has established a network of lawyers to specifically
tackle high-tech crime involving child pornography, computer
hacking and identity fraud.
Details of the network were given at a one-day conference at the
British Library in London as part of the organization's Hi-Tech
Crime Strategy.
Sophos believes that the technical expertise of the network of
110 barristers will better equip the courts to deal with such
cases, by preventing defendants from leaning on technology as a
get-out clause or to bamboozle the jury.
"The CPS proposals will act as a deterrent to internet criminals
and will help ensure these bad guys get the verdict and sentence
they deserve," said Graham Cluley, senior
technology consultant at Sophos. "This move is good news for
businesses across the UK, but there is still room for improvement
when dealing with high-tech crime. The legal system must now focus
on drawing up a formal framework for reporting internet security
issues such as spyware and Trojan horse attacks."
Sophos concedes that although the National High-Tech Crime Unit
has had some successes in fighting computer crime, it does not have
the resources to receive reports of attacks and infections and, as
a result, some cyber criminals are escaping justice.
Sophos strongly recommends that all companies actively protect
themselves from the attacks of cyber criminals with a consolidated solution which defends against
viruses, spyware, spam and Trojans; and that users do not open or
reply to unsolicited emails.
More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Sophos is committed to providing security and data protection solutions that are simple to manage, deploy and use and that deliver the industry's lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, and network access control solutions backed by SophosLabs - a global network of threat intelligence centers. With more than two decades of experience, Sophos is regarded as a leader in security and data protection by top analyst firms and has received many industry awards.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.