IT leaders call for tougher e-crime penalties

IT leaders want greater penalties for hackers

Electronic crime is still not being taken seriously enough by the government, and stricter penalties should be enacted for those convicted, according to research from blue-chip user group The Corporate IT Forum (Tif).

The organisation's survey suggests that 69 per cent of members had experienced an increase in intentional e-crime, and that 68 per cent of companies now spend up to 40 per cent of their security budgets protecting against cyber-crime.

The survey also highlighted growing scepticism of the government's response to this increase in e-crime.

"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," said Ollie Ross, head of research at Tif. "At the moment the risk of getting caught is simply not great enough."

Around 48 per cent of respondents gave their highest level of support to " consistent and appropriate penalties for cyber-criminals and cross-border e-crime legislation", according to the research.

The newly-created Police Central E-crime Unit was given a tentative welcome, but there is still a "certain level of cynicism" from Tif members over the poor funding and resources that look set to be invested in the unit, said Ross.

"It is clear from the survey that there is a growing confidence that [our members] are getting to grips with lapses and dealing with anything accidental, by staff training, encryption policies and so on," she said.

"What they can't do is deal with criminal activity, and they feel it is not seen as terribly important by the government."