CHESHIRE Constabulary’s website has come under fire after The Centre for Public Safety conducted a study into the standard of cyber-security across UK policing sites. With cybercrime a growing threat, the non-profit organisation scanned 71 police and policing-affiliated websites. It was uncovered that while one in four demonstrate high standards of secure encryption – the remainder have significant room for improvement.
When first tested in July, Cheshire Constabulary scored a C’ grade. By September, following the launch of a new website, the connection was less secure achieving only an F’ grade, it was claimed. But today, Thursday, the website reassessed and given a ‘C’ grade.
Rory Geoghegan, founding director of The Centre for Public Safety said: The Government and police regularly tell the public to look for the padlock when using websites.
It s time they followed their own advice and delivered secure-by-default websites for the public to use.
While the rest of the world moves to secure-by-default, some forces and their IT providers seem intent on delivering not-enough-by-default.
Take the Met Police – spending hundreds of millions per year and only achieving a grade C.
Over a quarter of police forces have got it right, allowing the public to communicate with them securely – but the rest need to redouble their efforts. But a spokesman for Cheshire Police said the force is always looking at ways to improve security. He added: “Some months ago, changes were made to the constabulary website to improve functionality and make it more user-friendly, with quicker and easier access to the information visitors are seeking.
“We would like to reassure the public that the Cheshire Police website is safe to use in-line with the purpose of providing publicly available information on policing.
“The web site is on a standalone platform that operates totally independently from any of our police systems and is not intended or designed to store information.
“Any systems that do hold policing data are subject to rigorous testing and independent IT Health Checks.
“We are confident that there is no threat to the security of police systems, and although the risks identified could only be exploited under very particular circumstances, we welcome the issue being raised.
We re working with our web hosting company to look at ways we can increase the security rating of this site.