MICHAEL HOLMES, WORLD NEWS: Computer-based crime is under the microscope in Paris. Officials from the world's leading industrialized nations are addressing the newest form of vandalism and theft - serious crime that knows no international boundaries. CNN's Peter Humi reports.</s>PETER HUMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In 1999, almost $500 billion worth of trade was conducted on the Internet - big business, but with increasingly big headaches. Legislating the rapidly expanding technology is a major challenge, one the G-8 delegates in Paris are only beginning to address.</s>TOM PICKARD, FBI DEPUTY DIRECTOR: We're all still learning. This is such a new phenomenon to all of us, it really just broke on the scene within the last five years. The possibilities and the problems are just developing.</s>HUMI: Among the problems, the notorious Love Bug virus which struck the Internet earlier this month, wreaking havoc with damage estimated as high as $7 billion. Opening the conference, France's interior minister Jean-Pierre Chevenement warned against knee-jerk reactions, which could threaten privacy and the rights of the individual on the Internet. The French government wants to draw in private business to help develop a global judicial and technological alliance to fight cybercrime. Businesses, such as this one, which is marketing a personal credit card style ID which it claims provides security for the user.</s>FRANCOIS BAYLOT, OBERTHUR: You can keep your information, your identity on yourself just on that card and bring from one another computer and just having your identity protected by a PIN code.</s>HUMI: The increasing use of the Internet and the increasing sophistication of the user is in itself a potential gold mine for criminal activity.</s>JAMES ROBINSON, U.S. ASST. ATTORNEY GENERAL: It's possible to sit in one part of the world and commit crimes and target victims all over the world.</s>HUMI: The delegates will present their recommendations to the G-8 heads of state summit in Japan in July. (on camera): The outcome of this conference will include a simple message to cybercriminals. Watch out. The Net is closing around you. Peter Humi, CNN, Paris.
Cybercrime Under G-8 Microscope In Paris