BUSINESSES in the North-East are being urged to protect themselves against the growing menace of cyber crime.

As trade is increasingly conducted via the internet, hackers and fraudsters are targeting vulnerable firms.

The police’s North East Serious Operations Unit (NERSOU) and the North East Fraud Forum held special cyber crime conference at Durham County Cricket Club attended by 200 delegates from small and medium enterprises and public sector bodies.

Among the speakers was Deputy Chief Constable Peter Goodman, the police national lead on cyber crime.

Det Supt Tim Walker, of NERSOU, said smaller enterprises could suffer more than their bigger brothers from cyber crime,

“A lot of the criminality is completely unseen. Someone may never know they have compromised, “ he said.

“You have people doing it for sport, for want of a better word, and there is certainly an amount of criminal gain and industrial espionage.

“We are much better at identifying financial crime now but we are also aware that a significant amount of fraud will be reported directly to banks and will never come the police’s way.

“It is a growing part of the workload of policing UK.

“The theft of client data could seriously damage a company’s reputation and the shutting down of a website could actually

finish off their business.

“To try and recover from that is a lot harder for a smaller company.”

Det Supt Walker said firms needed to ensure they were protected against attacks and that advice was readily available,

Visit www.nersou.org.uk for more information.