Q&A: Mikko Hyppönen, chief research officer, F-Secure

I am sure that the politicians and regulators will be asking for legislation to solve the problem. That is easy to say, but it won't solve the problem; the problem is that the internet is international. We don't have global laws and never will have global laws so any legislation we pass in individual countries, or even EU-wide, doesn't mean anything at all as these people are all over the world and their targets are all over the world.

These crimes are faceless and the damage done by one single attacker isn't very large, in monetary terms, so the interest of traditional police forces to investigate attacks internationally doesn't seem very high. Local legislation in individual countries isn't really helping us.

It is international crime, and international crime was a problem even before the internet.

• For more on the threats posed by cyber attacks to business and how to counter them, listen to Stephen Pritchard's podcast interview with Mikko Hyppnen.