Paul Simmonds, member of the Forum’s own Information Security Service and CSO at ICI shared the stage today with Conservative Shadow Home Secretary David Davis at the 2008 ecrime congress in London.

Both were speaking about the growing threat of electronic forms of crime and the importance of having a joined-up approach to its enforcement.

Speaking at the Congress, Davis described cyber-crime as a “serious threat to individuals, business and government” and called for a dedicated ecrime police force. He also pledged to make a Minister responsible for ecrime. Simmonds called on businesses to “wake up” to the threat of cyber-crime and said that all too often, boardrooms did not take the issue seriously enough.

The Corporate IT Forum has long campaigned for the return of a single line of reporting for cases of ecrime and we strongly support any proposal which makes it harder for cyber-criminals to attack British businesses. A far tougher approach is needed and we think that many of the proposed improvements announced today by David Davis will make sense to security chiefs.

Corporate IT Forum input was also was also referenced in the Conservative’s Green Paper on the issue: Cyber-crime in the UK - which you can download.