Microsoft has called on companies to work together to improve overall security, and not just rely on the police to do it for them.

Ed Gibson, Microsoft's chief security advisor in the UK, said during his keynote at Infosecurity Europe 2008 that security affects the entire industry and that companies must work together.

"We have a good set of laws in place and they have teeth. But the police have priorities and budgets set by the Home Office," he said.

"We do not want to have our cars stolen or be mugged in the street, and the police focus on social crimes rather than spending huge resources on minor electronic fraud."

Gibson added that this attitude is perfectly understandable in light of pressure on police time. Cyber-crime is seldom included in police targets and it takes a huge amount of resources.

Instead the computer industry needs to step into the breach and help police the internet by cutting down on the pool of available victims.

"Any one of you here would volunteer for neighbourhood watch if you thought it would improve your community. So why not online?" he said.

Security vendors need to make sure that products interoperate as much as possible, and ensure that integration is successfully implemented, according to Gibson.

This is proving easier than anticipated since security vendors in particular are very aware of the problems.