Industry:Digital Britain Interim Report

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The OWASP Global Industry will be submitting a response on behalf of OWASP to the interim Digital Britain report:

What's it about? An action plan to secure the UK's place at the forefront of innovation, investment and quality in the digital and communications industries. Why is this relevant to OWASP? The terms of reference for the report include:

Empowered and informed consumers and citizens fully equipped to take advantage of the opportunities convergence brings.

Internet: looking at a range of issues affecting internet users, such as user security and safety and a workable approach to promoting content standards.

and from the interim report:

We need to ensure that UK internet users can operate with security and confidence.

but the principles list only relate to privacy, personally identifiable information and illegal material.

In particular we would like to provide input to section 5.3 Online Safeguards. Our drafts have been created in conjunction with members of the London and Scotland chapters mailing lists and draw heavily on information already published on the OWASP website. However, the language and focus relate specifically to the context of the report. For example, we have avoided using the word "vulnerability" since "vulnerable groups" is currently heavily used in the document, and use "defects" instead. OWASP is referred to in the third person, and "we" and "our" are reserved for society in general.

Further comments are welcome up until submission last thing on 11th March 2007 (GMT).

Submission Response
Latest first

Final version
TBC

Draft Text version 2
2nd draft uploaded 9th March 2009:

Draft Text version 1
1st draft uploaded 5th March 2009:

Initial Comments
Key parts of the draft report, which could relate to application security, are:

Page 7 (Box: Five objectives, second item) "A dynamic investment climate for UK digital content, applications and services, that makes the UK an attractive place for both domestic and inward investment in our digital economy".

Page 13 (Equipping everyone to benefit from Digital Britain) Very few action points provided in the draft report compared to other sections. Nothing for 'online safeguards' yet.

Pages 36-38 (3 Digital Content 3.1 The Economies of Digital Content) E-commerce growth figures / commercial challenges. No mention of trust.

Pages 59 and 61 (4.2 Driving Universal Connectivity: Take-up) User demand / Ease of use. No mention of safety/security.

Page 66 (5.2 Media Literacy) "...need to ensure a population that is confident and empowered to access, use and create digital media." Also heavy emphasis on child protection, but not other users.

Page 69 (5.3: Online Safeguards) Whole section is important but currently focuses almost only on illegal and adult content.

Page 74 (Glossary)

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