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By Lisa Burroughes, 3 April 2001 18:00

NEWS While the word cybercrime is usually associated with hacking, it also encompasses other high-tech issues in which there could be legal liability, such as firewall misconfiguration or faults in virus prevention software. Damage can also be caused by technical negligence among companies in a supply chain. These types of cases rarely get to court because of the lack of knowledge within the legal profession. As a result, the Communications Management Association (CMA) has created the Institute for Communications Arbitration and Forensics (ICAF) to arbitrate in such cases. It already has over 500 members. A recent survey of CMA members found that one in two believe a network related security breach could jeopardise their business' future - and one third had already experienced some form of cybercrime. However, when it comes prosecution, few cases ever get to court, according to Graham Robinson, CEO of ICAF. He argued there is a lack of technical expertise to help settle complicated ICT related cases - particularly if it involves allocating responsibility for failure at some point in the supply chain. "There is a perceived and actual disadvantage of going through the courts to settle disputes because technical expertise is lacking," Robinson said. "It is often costly and inefficient." ICAF aims to resolve this by creating a register of benchmarked technical experts and ICT-literate lawyers who would be able to arbitrate in future cybercrime disputes. It also intends to co-ordinate with universities to have short courses on the latest security issues integrated into the final years of undergraduates studying law and computer sciences. Robinson added: "The nature of ICT is that the experts tend to be young and the problem is that if a young person is presented as an expert it can unsettle the court." To resolve this ICAF has gained the backing of ten leading judges to create a certification for technical expertise. ICAF said it intends to work closely with the many other cybercrime organisations already established, and through the CMA it has a seat on the industry advice board of the Home Office's technical unit, which is in its first week of existence.