The first e-crime congress has opened the debate on online crime again and delegates have been told to view crime of this nature as an "aggravated" form of normal crime.
The UK National Hi-Tech Crime Unit has said that the sheer volume of online crime is on the increase. One of the speakers, DCS Hynds, made a speech at the congress, which opened in the UK on Monday, stating: "The Internet provides organised crime groups driven by profit with lucrative opportunities in a relatively low risk theatre of operations". He then went on to say that "Hi-tech crime is every type of crime but with a component placing it into the digital environment .. This makes it an aggravated version of the original offence because it is able to operate instantaneously, remotely and with disregard for sovereignty and geography.".
The congress is a made up from a culmination of law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and Interpol, and they intend to look at issues such as the scope of hi-tech crime and how organisations can help law enforcement.
The head of Europol"s high-tech crime unit has said that "With cybercrime, it"s become so obvious that we"ve lost the battle even before we"ve begun to fight. We can"t keep up", so this new move to unite the world"s crime prevention forces is clearly one that is long overdue.