And many of them are afraid to go to police because of the publicity involved. As a Pennsylvania State Police trooper in the Computer Crimes Division, he's used to having criminals dodge him. But one of the biggest problems he faces is the fact that many companies don't report cyber crime because they fear bad publicity. We're not going to come to your office, kick in your door and steal your server. The conference was sponsored by the West Chester Electronic Resource Center , the Delaware Valley Roundtable Inc. , the Internet Business Alliance and Penn State Great Valley .
Many companies are afraid to file reports when their systems have been hacked.
The state police will only release information on cyber crimes if an arrest is made, he said. But Nelson said federally insured banks are mandated by law to report such crimes. Private companies are not mandated to report crime. In 1998, President Clinton signed a bill calling for computer crime statistics to be collected by law enforcement. Nelson said the police have been doing this, and regularly share information between states and local agencies.