Centre is key to tackling e-crime

E-crime has been hitting businesses hard in South Yorkshire

A centre has opened to combat the multi-million pound impact of crimes on businesses in South Yorkshire.

Former Home Secretary David Blunkett and the county's Chief Constable Meredydd Hughes launched the Business Crime Reduction Centre in Sheffield.

Many small and medium-sized firms are at risk of people hacking into their systems and using identity theft to defraud traders with online business.

The Federation of Small Businesses says UK firms are losing £19bn a year.

The scheme has a £1.8m budget to run for the next three years. David Ransom, chief executive of the South Yorkshire People United Against Crime charity, which launched the new centre, said e-crime was a threat to any business.

"Any drive to encourage more businesses to adopt e-business practices to improve quality, increase competitiveness, customer satisfaction and reduce costs can only be successful if companies have confidence in trading online in a secure and risk-free manner."

A laptop computer costing £500 may hold £50,000 or more of commercial intelligence, if not the firm's entire database David Ransom

Mr Ransom said the Federation of Small Businesses recently reported that 20% of all crimes are committed against businesses.

"Some 40% of employers don't even report crimes as they feel 'it wouldn't achieve anything'," he said.

"Most crimes are reported for insurance purposes rather than the victim expecting a culprit to be caught.

"Businesses that are repeat victims of crime can close down, which adds to the downward spiral in deprived areas.

"We hope our initiative will assist the authorities in helping to address this decline.

"What we have to do is step up security levels for businesses feeling their way with IT use.

"For example, a laptop computer costing £500 may hold £50,000 or more of commercial intelligence, if not the firm's entire database."