Yesterday, President Obama took an important step toward putting cyber security front and center by appointing Howard Schmidt as cyber security coordinator. Not only will this significantly aide in advancing the current administration’s cyber security initiatives—it’s also a critical step forward in the private sector’s fight against cyber crime.

Given the impact that cyber crime has on our economy, online businesses especially have a lot riding on the success of these government initiatives. A recent report from LexisNexis estimates that U.S. businesses lose $191 billion annually from computer related crimes. This is why Mr. Schmidt’s combined experience in both government and the private sector will hopefully be an important asset, allowing him to simultaneously understand the issues currently facing businesses and be able to cut through the red tape on Capitol Hill to make real change happen. (more…)

In the UK, identity fraud has been identified as one of the fastest growing crimes in 2009. In response to this alarming news, the UK government is kicking off a National Identity Fraud Prevention Week to try to raise awareness about the issue and focus on what individuals and businesses can do to protect themselves.

With a website devoted to the new campaign, it’s easy to take a quick look at some statistics about fraud in the UK, and some of them are quite frightening. While the information on the site is based on UK numbers, the concerns that those statistics raise are likely applicable in many countries, as identify theft is a world-wide problem. (more…)