Businesses could be forced to contribute to the funding of a national police internet crime service, according to new plans from the Home Office.
The proposals would lead the private sector to contribute to the Policing Central E-crime Unit, which would also take funding from the Home Office and Acpo, reports ZDNet.
Private sector businesses have hit back at the plans, saying the unit should be funded entirely from the government.
Jeremy Beale, head of e-business at the Confederation of British Industry, told the website: "Businesses would probably be prepared to pay for services of particular sectoral interest to them. But in general it should be funded out of general taxation."
Catherine Bowen, head of crime policy at the British Retail Consortium, said that if businesses were made to pay they would want a say in how the unit was run.
A spokesman for Intellect said: "There are a lot of stakeholders who have an interest in tackling e-crime, you have the consumers, the retailers, the Financial Services Authority, the government and police."
Last month the head of computer crime at Scotland Yard said that a dedicated online crime unit needed to be created.
|
