E-crime 'not taken seriously'

14:00 4th November 2008

Electronic crime is not being taken seriously enough by the UK government, according to research by the Corporate IT Forum (Tif).

The blue-chip user organisation's survey has suggested that 69 per cent of its members had experienced an increase in e-crime, while it also disclosed that the same percentage spend up to 40 per cent of their security budgets protecting against online threats.

Ollie Ross, head of research at Tif, believes that the risk of getting caught for conducting cyber-crime is "simply not great enough".

He said: "We are calling on the government to wake up a little in dealing with this, so we've called for the appropriate deterrents and penalties."

The survey also revealed scepticism of the government's response to e-crime.

Last month, the European Union agreed to spend £44 million from 2009 until 2013 to make the internet a safer place for children and businesses.