G8 calls for cooperation to tackle cybercrime

At this week's G8 conference in Paris, representatives from the IT security industry and legal agencies agreed to swap jobs as part of an effort to work more closely in the fight against global cybercrime.

The employee exchange between the sectors is a further attempt to improve education and awareness of the problems associated with preventing cybercrime and bringing offenders to justice.

Ron Maritz, vice president and chief technology officer at antivirus company Symantec, and part of the US delegation at the conference, told vnunet.com: "We have always maintained a relationship with law enforcement agencies, but it could be improved. For example, when we get information about a new virus they should be informed five minutes after we are, instead of having to hear it on the news. We also need information from them to enable us to improve our products."

Maritz said that delegates agreed that cybercrime is not an issue than can be tackled by legislation or regulation alone. "It needs co-operation between each sector. However, there was some disagreement on how much government intervention there should be. The Canadians and Americans were more keen on a non-regulative approach than the Europeans," he said.

He added that although the response to cybercrime and the identification of culprits had improved, legislation in some countries is not as helpful as it could be.

This issue was particularly highlighted by the release of the suspected writers of the Love Bug virus, which caused worldwide destruction earlier this month. "Although these kids caused a lot of damage, there may not be any follow up," he said.

The conference also recommended co-operation on legal processes, said Maritz. "Not to the extent that there is one law for all countries, but issues such as extradition of these offenders should be considered so [offenders] can be tried in other countries."

He said that the most important aspect of the whole conference was the recognition by heads of state that the problem of cybercrime is very serious. "They now have the same concerns over cybercrime as they do over chemical or nuclear warfare," he said.