Help us fight cyber-crime, urge police

Companies, the public and police must work together to beat cyber-crime, the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police has warned.

Speaking at the second e-Crime Congress of the National Hi-Tec Crime Unit (NHTCU), Sir John Bourne said the police currently found it difficult to identify and tackle online crime.

He blamed widespread public ignorance, made worse because so much cyber-crime is invisible to internet users. Calling for people to come forward and to act responsibly to help police investigations, he warned that both individuals and businesses were at risk.

A new survey conducted by the NHTCU has found that more than four in five companies experienced a high-tech crime attack last year. And the problem is rapidly worsening.

The nature of the crimes committed indicates that organised high-tech crime gangs are growing stronger.

The survey found financial fraud to be the biggest problem, accounting for losses of £121m in 2003 and affecting 17 per cent of all companies surveyed. This figure includes financial loss, loss of business and reduced customer confidence.

Virus attacks were admitted to by 77 per cent of those surveyed, costing companies £27.8m to clean up, with data theft costing companies £6.6m and denial of service attacks a further £1.3m.

Rogue employees are still a problem for companies, costing around £23m in 2003, with the cost of other types of high-tech crime put at around £8m for the year.

But detective chief superintendent Len Hynds, head of the NHTCU, said the figure could be far worse, since many firms do not admit to having their security breached.

"While it is too early to put an accurate figure on the total financial impact for UK businesses, all the indicators suggest that we are talking about billions rather than millions," he said.

Both the NHTCU and Bill Hughes, director general of the National Crime Squad, called on industry to be more open and proactive with law enforcement agencies to help tackle cyber-crime.