Britain is still complacent about e-crime despite hackers from 25 countries committing it regularly, according to a report from the Home Affairs Committee.
The committee said the UK needs to establish an espionage response centre, which would allow companies, media, and institutions to report hacking attempts so that action can be taken.
Its report said there appears to be a ‘black hole’ where e-crime is committed with impunity and committee head Keith Vaz said the UK is not winning the war on online criminal activity.
"We are being too complacent about these e-wars because the victims are hidden in cyberspace," said Vaz. "The threat of a cyber attack to the UK is so serious it is marked as a higher threat than a nuclear attack."
Vaz noted that out of the 25 nations some of the hackers are operating from EU countries.
"If we don’t have a 21st century response to this 21st century crime, we will be letting those involved in these gangs off the hook," he added.
The report also addressed the ease with which people can access inappropriate online content, particularly indecent images of children, sites inciting terrorism and those informing people how to commit online crime.
Vaz said: "The Prime Minister was right this week to highlight the responsibility of the ISPs, search engines and social media sites.
"They are far too laid back about what takes place on their watch and they need to do more to take inappropriate content down. If they do not act, the Government should legislate."
