Political leaders continue to hold conferences and sign treaties as the need to tackle cybercrime at an international level rapidly increases, but ultimately these attempts at agreement fail due to national interests and diplomatic concerns, according to Simon Heron, internet security analyst at managed security company Network Box.

In The state of international co-operation on cybercrime, Heron highlights the need for cybercrime to be tackled at an international level. Political attempts at a response to the problem have so far been flawed due to reasons ranging from domestic populations concerns over privacy and justice, to a fear of incompatibility with national cyber security initiatives that are already underway. No nation wants to give up more power to international bodies, and yet no one nation can fight cybercrime in isolation.

The paper goes on to discuss how the nature of cybercrime has changed over the years from a lone hacker working on their own, to international cyber gang networks who use servers in multiple countries to avoid detection, and sometimes even hide behind the apathy of their own Governments - who are willing to look the other way as long as their own citizens are not the victims.

A possible solution may come from the private sector, either working with political organisations or placing pressure on them to find a resolution, as it's their customers who are being placed at risk and their websites under attack.

Simon Heron says: "It's clear that it will take some time to agree and implement an international strategy to combat cybercrime. Whether this will end up being a private or public sector initiative is still uncertain, but Governments must not halt their own initiatives in the interim. The new British Government must make fighting cybercrime a key policy of its administration. The UK is now responsible for almost six per cent of the world's viruses and receives more than its fair share of malware. We clearly need to be part of the solution rather than the problem."

"In the short term, the IT industry will continue to provide technological solutions to combat the problem, but in the end it's just a temporary measure. One way that Governments can make a difference is by educating people about cybercrime and cutting off the incentive to distribute spam."

For more information on security issues, see www.network-box.co.uk, or visit Simon Heron's blog at: http://blog.network-box.co.uk/, or follow Simon on Twitter: http://twitter.com/networkbox.

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