The FBI has called for greater international co-ordination in anti-hacking laws at the first International Conference on Cyber Security.

The conference was held last week at Fordham University in New York City, and was co-sponsored by the FBI. It aimed to bring together commercial companies, law enforcement agencies and private individuals with an interest in curbing online crime.

"The FBI's goal in sponsoring this conference is to build and forge long-lasting relationships to combat terrorist and criminal use of the internet, " said Joseph Demarest, head of the FBI's New York office. "The conference is the beginning of greater co-operation on all cyber matters."

An example of how such co-operation would work is a new 24/7 computer intrusion investigation team, which now has 55 member states contributing resources.

The FBI gave an illustration of how the team responds to attacks. An initial intrusion into a bank in Mexico City was found to be routed through a computer in New York. This was controlled from a computer in South Korea, which was in turn traced to a machine in Thailand where local police made an arrest.

Thanks to inter-network co-operation the team could trace the intrusion and make an arrest within hours, rather than the weeks and months that traditional online policing would have taken.

"The bottom line is to make sure there are consequences for criminal cyber actions, and similar consequences everywhere," said Christopher Painter, deputy assistant director of the FBI's Cyber Division. "The bad guys need to know there is no free ride."