Cyber crime is costing UK business billions of pounds a year.

Various studies suggest the overall cost to the UK economy, including intellectual property theft and non business crime, could be as high as £27bn a year.

Cyber crime is an all-embracing term for criminal activity involving the use of computers and includes identity theft, online scams, intellectual property theft, espionage, extortion and fiscal fraud.

The estimated cost, which was included in a report compiled for Government, does not include cyber terrorism.

Later this month, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Chamber of Commerce’s BusinessWatch team will be hosting an event aimed at raising awareness of the issue and giving delegates the ability to protect themselves from attack.

The Protecting Your Business from Cyber Crime event will be opened by BusinessWatch Manager Andy Watterson who said: “The Chamber is proud to be leading the fight against cyber crime which is an area of huge concern.

“It doesn’t discriminate in terms of size or financial status of a business and is active across all sectors of the community.”

Detective Chief Inspector Tracy Lewis, Derbyshire Police lead on cyber crime, will be the second speaker at the morning-long event and will give an overview of what cyber crime is.

She said: “I think businesses are reluctant to report cyber attacks to the police for a number of reasons including reputational risk so we don’t have huge amounts of data yet to give us an accurate picture of just how big the problem might be in Derbyshire.

“Cyber crimes when they are reported are categorised under any number of classifications, from paedophilia to fraud. To help gain a clearer picture of the size of the UK’s fraud problem, the Government has established a national fraud reporting centre called Action Fraud. That will give us a better understanding of the cyber fraud problem in the future.”

“In the meantime, I can only emphasise how important it is that all cyber crime is reported so that perpetrators can be brought to justice.”

The nature of current national threats will be outlined by Shona McIntosh, of the newly formed National Crime Agency, before Detective Chief Inspector Mick Beattie and Detective Sergeant Nick Bria, of the Regional Cyber Crime Unit, talk about current threats in the East Midlands.

Detective Sergeant Brian Collins will then discuss real life cases where Derbyshire businesses have been targeted by cyber criminals.

After a short break, there will be a series of presentations giving businesses advice on how to protect themselves from cyber crime. Topics covered will include protecting your identity online, working practices and policies, closing the door on hackers and using firewalls and anti-virus software to protect your network.

Alan Charles, Police and Crime Commissioner for Derbyshire, said: “Businesses and individuals alike really need to take cyber crime seriously and put in place appropriate measures to defend themselves.

“This type of crime is a big, yet usually invisible, threat to any online presence requiring robust safeguards to protect assets and information.

“If anyone is in doubt, I would urge them to check just how well their precautionary measures will stand up if tested.”

Protecting Your Business from Cyber Crime, run in partnership with DNCC’s eBusiness Club, takes place at Pride Park Stadium, Derby, on 29 November, starting at 8.30am, and is free. Places must be booked, however, by emailing businesscrime@dncc.co.uk or enquiries@ebusinessclub.biz. Alternatively, call 01246 212909.