The government’s proposal to set up a central hub for UK firms to report cyber fraud has been welcomed by the Federation Against Software Theft (FAST).

The proposal follows a recommendation from the Office of Cyber Security (OCS) resulting from the first government-backed study, reporting that cybercrime costs the British economy around £27bn a year.

A truly accurate figure for cybercrime losses, said FAST’s chief executive, John Lovelock, could only come from a centralised reporting hub, and the OCS figures should cause alarm bells to ring for government and businesses to start focusing on tackling a problem that is costing the UK economy so dear each year.

“We recognise that the OCS’ assessments are based on assumption rather than solid research, however, we cannot ignore their estimations and we certainly welcome the creation of an unbiased, central hub for reporting fraud. Considering the cost of IP theft by industry sector, which runs at some £1.6bn for software and computer services, the hub should be managed so that industry can engage and readily deal with the issue,” commented Lovelock.

Intellectual Property (IP) theft had the greatest economic impact, around £9.2bn a year, with the report highlighting the hardest hit industries as pharmaceutical, biotechnology, electronic, chemical and IT sectors.

“There needs to be a number of ongoing debates to examine and secure a handle on these issues and if necessary improve legal as well as technological tools to reduce these figures over the short, medium and long-term. We welcome OCS’ recommendation in taking a stance towards creating a safer environment for UK businesses, which could be hugely valuable to the UK economy both for businesses and its employees.

“In working side by side with companies, this initiative has the potential to really drill down in to the issues of IP theft and achieve a greater insight in to the true state of UK cybercrime,” he added.

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