Pembrokeshire's e-Crime officer has warned that new figures from the Cabinet Office suggest that e-Crime could be costing the Welsh economy a staggering £974 million, with businesses being the top target for criminals.

The figure contrasts significantly to last year's estimated figure of £373 million, but e-Crime Wales, a Welsh Assembly Government organisation dedicated to promoting online safety, has warned that even this figure may not tell the whole story.

The organisation, a partnership between government, private sector companies, academia and the four Welsh Police forces, has urged the public and businesses to report online crimes to the Police in order for a more accurate measure of the extent of the problem to be achieved.

More than half of the electronic crimes recorded in the report entitled The Cost of Cyber Crime were made up of intellectual property (IP) theft. However crimes such as illegal file-sharing were not included in the report, meaning the estimate could actually be conservative.

Other crimes included in the report commissioned by the Office of Cyber Security and Information Assurance were industrial espionage, extortion, direct online theft, fraud such as identity theft or fiscal fraud, the installation of scareware and theft of customer data.

Sectors such as pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, electronics, information technology and chemicals fared worst in relation to IP theft, and the financial services sector and mining industries in relation to industrial espionage. Individuals and government organisations are also affected.

Although figures sourced by an earlier survey by e-Crime Wales indicate businesses and individuals are more familiar with the concept of e-Crime (awareness of online crimes and e-Crime Wales had increased by five per cent on the previous year), due to the increasing dependency of society on IT and the internet, they are also increasingly vulnerable to risk.

e-Crime Wales' dedicated business liaison officer for Dyfed Powys Police, Karen Burch, said: "The report concludes that cyber crime is seriously under-reported. As a result, the real cost of cybercrime in Wales could be different to the figure included in the report - it could be higher, it could be lower.

"Technology provides greater opportunities to commit offences, and with fewer risks. In comparison to physical crime, the perpetrator of an electronic crime is far more difficult to find. Often they will reside in countries outside of the where the crime itself is committed, making prosecution in some cases often impossible.

"We can't stop criminals committing crimes, but we can protect ourselves. e-Crime is constantly evolving, and businesses, organisations and individuals need to stay vigilant to emerging threats. In Wales we have the tools to be able to do that, and I urge businesses to take advantage of the services that e-Crime Wales offers. Report any types of e-Crime to your local business liaison officer via the e-Crime Wales website or contact your local force."

The e-Crime Wales website has a suite of free downloadable literature covering all aspects of advice, support and guidance on how to protect business critical data from online threats, contact details for e-Crime business liaison officers throughout Wales, and a resource for businesses to report suspected e-Crimes. For more information, please go to http://www.ecrimewales.com">www.ecrimewales.com