Britain's new high-tech crime unit is not going to do much to stem the rising tide of cybercrime, say experts working in the field.

The cash being pumped into the new unit is tiny when compared to the resources brought to bear on cybercrime by the worldwide computer security industry, they argue.

Companies are struggling to cope with the growing ranks of malicious hackers, virus writers and computer criminals. Also, the international nature of the internet limits the effectiveness of initiatives taken within only one country.

The experts say one real difference the unit can make is to keep companies aware of the threats they face and to help educate people about ethical computer use.

Money for nothing

This week saw the official unveiling of the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU) which, as its name suggests, will specialise in the investigation of crimes that involve net and computer technology.

The �25m NHTCU will take staff from individual police forces, customs, the National Crime Squad (NCS) and the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS), and is expected to place a computer-savvy cybercop in every regional force.

Although the creation of the NHTCU marks a significant increase in the number of British police officers trained to tackle computer crime, experts say it is still not enough.

"Even with �25m behind this unit, it will have very limited capability," said Craig Whitney, a spokesman for Internet Security Systems.

"It will be able to catch the low-hanging fruit, the easy pickings, the people that are not very good at covering their tracks. �25m is a drop in the bucket when you compare it to the amount that the industry spends as a whole on security," said Mr Whitney.

"It is only because of the increase in the number of incidents that it gains the attention of governments."

Big contribution

Graham Cluley, a spokesman for anti-virus company Sophos, said the Computer Crime Unit, the forerunner of the NHTCU, was "woefully under-resourced" and he welcomed the fresh funds and the creation of the new unit, but expressed doubt about what it would be able to achieve.

"The big challenge facing it is the fact that internet crime knows no boundaries," he said.

"It does not matter if we have a computer crime unit in the UK if the villains are perpetrating their crimes from the beaches of Brazil."

Mr Cluley said the existence of the NHTCU would help to remind companies to take the threat of computer crime seriously and could make more of them come forward when they were hit by a malicious hacker or a damaging virus.

But if the UK Government wants to make a big contribution to the prevention of computer crime, it should do more to teach budding computer experts about the morality of using their machines to hack or write viruses, he said.

"Kids have not been taught that some of these things are wrong and there are real victims of these crimes."