Home Office forges Cyber Crime Reduction Partnership

The Home Office has announced details of a new Government-led cyber crime prevention initiative that will combine the skills of academics, police forces and industry experts.

The Government's new Cyber Crime Reduction Partnership was announced earlier today by security minister James Brokenshire during a speech at the Chartered Institute for IT.

Its aim is to draw on the expertise of the police, industry players and the academic community to help UK law enforcement agencies stay one step ahead of cyber criminals.

During the speech, Brokenshire said one of the group's aims will be change people's views about who hackers are.

"For too long the public's perception of cyber crime has been a lone bedroom hacker stealing money from a bank account. But the reality is that cyber criminals are organised and global, with a new breed of criminals selling off-the-shelf' software to aid gangs in exploiting the public," he said.

"This government is committed to tackling this threat and we have already had great success. But we want to go further and...I am confident we can bring these criminals to justice."

The Government's cyber crime strategy recently came under attack in a Select Committee report that claimed the Armed Forces reliance on IT means its activities could be severely undermined by a cyber attack.

However, according to Government figures, the strategy has prevented around 538 million of cyber crime being caused through the work of its Police Central e-Crime unit.