British businesses are under siege by criminals and vandals using technology for financial gain or to cause havoc

A survey by the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit found 83% of UK companies have been the victims of computer crime. The vast majority, 77%, were virus attacks and, on average, companies face 254 assaults from malicious programs every year. Other computer crimes reported in the study included fraud, theft of key data and denial-of-service attacks. The survey was unveiled at the second E-Crime Congress in London. In addition to business fraud, the crime unit's head DCS Len Hynds, said he was determined to clean up sex sites promoting cannibalism and necrophilia. "I can't walk down the High Street and have banner advertisements that come up to promote cannibalism but why tolerate that online?" He told the conference that some companies are being hit by "multi-million pound losses" as a result of hi-tech crime. The cost of dealing with attacks over the last year by disinfecting computers, investigating who has committed crimes and securing networks and machines was put by survey respondents at £195m.