THE Police and Crime Commissioner has committed £1.5m to address cyber crime in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. It ensures an ongoing focus to help keep people, businesses and communities as safe as possible from cyber crime threats.

In order to remain at the forefront of the fight against cyber crime, Simon Hayes has announced additional funding to Hampshire Constabulary, specifically to improve the response for victims. It will help to keep people, businesses and communities across the two counties as safe as possible from cyber crime threats.

Cyber crime is any type of illegal activity that involves a computer, either as the object of a crime such as hacking or phishing, or as the tool to commit an offence such as hate crimes or child pornography. Reports of non-investment fraud, a category which includes frauds related to online shopping and computer software services, has risen as much as 15 per cent in the year to March 2015.

Mr Hayes said: “As we embrace technology and conduct our lives online, so crime has changed and moved online to follow us. In fact, the Home Office expects cyber crime to exceed traditional crime by next year. In order to protect us, and to prevent and pursue cyber crime, the police must be funded to uplift their efforts to respond to victims.

“We need these structures in place to allow us to react quickly and effectively to new online threats; we must also have the knowledge to advise the public on how they can protect their online lives.”

A survey gathering public responses runs until February and can be found at visit hampshire-pcc.gov.uk.