The explosion in UK-based cybercrime has led the British Computer Society (BCS) to set up a specialist ‘think tank’ to offer expertise to the police and others fighting increasingly sophisticated online fraud.

The newly-formed BCS Cybercrime Forensics Specialist Group will give special attention to the role cybercrime forensics - the use of scientifically proven methods to gather process and interpret digital evidence for criminal investigations - could play in the lead up to and during the London 2012 Olympic Games.

The UK has the second highest number of perpetrators of cybercrime—estimated to cost around £6bn a year—in the world, after the United States. This is according to the latest Internet Crime Report, which places Britain ahead of cyber-crime "hotspots" Nigeria and Romania.

The new group will focus on the latest developments in cybercrime forensics in the UK, worldwide legal issues surrounding cybercrime forensics, and consider the process of accrediting expert witnesses in court cases.