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UK: Ministers told to plan for e-nightmare

------- Forwarded message follows ------- From: "Dave Foulger" <davidfoulger@hotmail.com> To: <ukcrypto@maillist.ox.ac.uk> Subject: Ministers told to plan for e-nightmare Date sent: Tue, 1 Aug 2000 09:36:29 +0100 Send reply to: ukcrypto@maillist.ox.ac.uk

The Times July 31 2000 BRITAIN

Ministers told to plan for e-nightmare

BY ADAM SHERWIN

BRITAIN could descend into Internet anarchy, with high-tech criminal gangs controlling the economy, while EU bungles may foster the rise of a violent underclass poised on the brink of revolution. These are two visions of life in 2015 included in a government report.

Civil servants produced a series of "future scenarios" for ministers based on extrapolations from current economic indicators and interviews with business leaders and information technology experts. The report was put together by the little-known Future Unit at the request of Peter Mandelson during his reign at the Department of Trade and Industry.

Two of the projections were omitted from the final report, Work in the Knowledge-Based Economy, when it was delivered to Stephen Byers, Mr Mandelson's successor. The Future Unit has now published them on its website, alongside the full report.

In one of them, called "Gangland", a failure by Government to secure electronic transactions leads to the nation being held to ransom by hackers. Society reaches the verge of meltdown as a bankrupt Government is unable to pay for public services. With gangsters running the electronic economy, people return in desperation to an antiquated form of exchange - cash. The report gives warning that Mr Mandelson's dream of a cutting-edge Britain leading the world in digital commerce could turn into a techno- nightmare.

It predicts: "The technological revolution . . . is foundering on the rocks of Internet anarchy and lack of trust by 2015. Government failed to provide the structure by which technologies and people could communicate securely and efficiently."

The other projection kept from ministers, "Death by a Thousand Regulations", depicts the EU "through mismanagement of major decisions" exerting a draining influence on Britain's economy. Nationalism becomes popular as the economy stagnates and the Government provides only "a basic level of provision" for a volatile underclass.

There are also more positive scenarios. In "Wired World", for example, Britain boasts a "vibrant and dynamic economy" of dot-com entrepreneurs reliant on secure communications.

The DTI says it has responded to the threat posed by the lack of security on the Web by producing measures to prevent electronic information being seized by criminals, including the legal recognition of digital signatures.

The Future Unit says that the scenarios are not exact predictions of the future but "different perspectives on potential outcomes".

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