Challenge of the century

Online fraud is the great legal challenge of the early 21st century, writes John Cooper QC in this week’s NLJ. It costs the national economy an estimated £50bn per year, and the police have called for individuals to take more responsibility for online security because they cannot cope. One of the difficulties, he writes, is that much of the instigation of the offence takes place overseas and as a result the law provides the police with very little to overcome the jurisdictional problems.