The number of instances of serious cyber crime in the Netherlands has reached 170 so far this year, compared with 150 cases in 2009 as a whole, internet security watchdog Govcert says in Tuesday’s Financieele Dagblad.

Organised cyber crime is taking increasingly large-scale forms, Elly van den Heuvel, head of the government’s computer crime group told the paper. ‘We are under increasing pressure because cyber crime is growing and getting more complicated.’
Van den Heuvel declined to give examples of cases which Govcert is currently looking into.
However, last month it emerged hackers had stolen the personal details of 170,000 people who had applied online for a public transport smart card (ov-chipkaart). And earlier this year, patient details were stolen from two hospital IT systems.
Bank and credit card details, log-in names and passwords and ID numbers are all valuable to computer crooks, she said. For example, credit card details are often used to book last-minute flights.
Govcert wants companies to be required by law to report all cases of cyber crime.
In addition, computer owners should be better aware of ‘digital hygiene’ and regularly change passwords and anti-virus programmes, she said.