Small business guide to e-crime launched

The Home Office has published a new guide to help small businesses protect themselves against online crime.

The downloadable document E-Crime: What Your Business Really Needs to Know provides a checklist of internet threats and security actions, including valuing all IT assets, regularly backing up files and installing virus checkers and firewalls.

Among the commons-sense advice is that staff use "realistic" passwords that they avoid writing down, and that employers cancel employees' access to their internal systems as soon as they leave the company.

The guide also lists a number of non-police organisations that can advise small businesses on online security.

The guide was produced by Government-funded body the Cybersecurity Knowledge Transfer Network and the Business Crime Reduction Centre (BCRC) in South Yorkshire.

David Stockdale, from the BCRC, told computer news website vnunet.com: "E-crime is easy to ignore and there is a real head-in-the-sand approach from a lot of small businesses."