Government and European funds for Welsh anti e-crime
initiatives can no longer be guaranteed and companies have been
called on to embark on self-help projects and become more active
within local initiatives.
At the
e-Crime
Wales Summit, Llandudno, this week, detective chief
superintendent Chris Corcoran, chair of the e-Crime Wales Steering
Group, warned delegates that current funding would not last
forever.
He said that the
Wales
e-Crime Group would continue liaising and advising business,
but its role in future would be international best practice and
e-crime information exchange. Fourteen European countries have
agreed to participate.
"We must not become too reliant on government," he told the 350
Welsh business delegates at the fifth e-Crime Wales Summit.
The summit heard that in Wales over the past five years the loss
to the Welsh economy through business e-crime had increased from
£190m to nearly £300m.
"Such losses equal job losses, which Wales cannot currently
afford," said DCS Corcoran. "With a bit more effort we can keep
business in business and keep people employed."
But despite the growing threat of e-crime, 12% of UK companies
are still running internets without security. Research showed that
20% of companies had no anti-virus software installed and 20% had
no firewalls."
Garreth Griffith, head of risk management at PayPal, said
malware had grown by 600% over the past year.
Griffith admitted that of the $60bn processed by eBay last year,
at a rate of more than $2,000 a second, the company suffered losses
of 0.3%, or $20m.
He warned that while more e-crime is being detected, there is
still much to be done and he urged Welsh businesses to forge new
partnerships and work together in the cybercrime battle.