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Ministers are seeking to fast-track the Government’s e-borders scheme that dictates all entrants to the UK are scanned with high-technology against police, intelligence and immigration watchlists, in the wake of the London bombings. The push to accelerate the national programme, which also stores e-records of people leaving Britain, rests on the premise that its inception date of 2008 should be brought forward, due to its potential usefulness in fighting terrorism. In particular, ministers hope accelerating the scheme’s introduction would help thwart terrorists fleeing the country by Eurostar, or other small, low risk, sea and airports. One government source told The Observer that e-borders was now considered a “crucial” weapon in the war against terror and waiting until 2008 was too long. However, concerns remain that speeding up the roll out of e-borders would leave too little time to fix any glitches in its associated computer system. Under current plans, the system would also provide an automatic list of foreign nationals who have overstayed visas, thereby making it easier to detect and deport illegal immigrants. Already authorities have rigorously seized the computers of terrorist suspects, but in unison with MPs, are calling for extra powers to better combat the detection and capture of terrorists. This week Sir Ian Blair, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, will propose a mandatory ten-year sentence for anyone refusing to provide police with details of how to access encrypted data on their computer. Current laws dictate that a suspect can be held for 14 days, but concern is mounting that the time should be extended to allow police a better chance at extracting data from encrypted systems. “A lot of the stuff that we have on computers is encrypted, and for that reason I am interested in creating an offence of refusing to reveal an encryption key. “It has to be punishable by a term of at least 10 years,” Blair said. The Association of Chief Police Officers has added its voice to those requesting extra powers, by pushing for new and separate measures to tackle terrorists’ use of the internet. But one anonymous police official, quoted in the Sunday newspaper, said use of the Web by terrorists to gather information was often overhyped. “If I was in the business of making highly volatile explosives, I would not be relying on the internet as my only source of information,” the detective said. “It is more important to go after the preachers of hatred who stand on street corners and stir up trouble.” The news comes as UK police officers have been given their own Web portal to learn how to more effectively combat high-tech crime through an online training course. Launched by Centrex, the portal serves as an add-on to mandatory computer crime courses for recruits since September 2003, and intends to bridge the technical knowledge gap between new entrants and serving officers. Aug 2, 2005 Email this article Printer friendly page Previous Page
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