1. August 4,2006 Announcement: The US Senate ratifies CoE Convention on Cyber Crime. The convention targets hackers, those spreading destructive computer viruses, those using the Internet for the sexual exploitation of children or the distribution of racist material, and terrorists attempting to attack infrastructure facilities or financial institutions. The Convention is in full accord with all the US constitutional protections, such as free speech and other civil liberties, and will require no change to the US laws.

2. In August 18,2006, there was a news article published "ISPs Wary About 'Drastic Obligations' on Web Site Blocking." European Union (EU) officials want to debar suspicious websites as part of a 6 -point plan to boost joint anti terrorism activities. They want to block websites that incite terrorist action. Once again it is underlined that monitoring calls, Internet and E-Mail traffic for law enforcement purposes is a task vested in the government, which must reimburse carriers and providers for retaining the data.

3. CoE Cyber Crime Convention $(1997-2001)$ was the first international treaty seeking to address Internet crimes by harmonizing national laws, improving investigative techniques and increasing cooperation among nations.More than 40 countries have ratified the Convention to date.

One wonders as to what is the role of business/private sector in taking up measures to prevent cyber crime and toward responsibilities and role related to the ownership of information and communication infrastructures. Effective security requires an in-depth understanding of the various aspects of information and communication network.and communication networks. Therefore private sector's expertise should be increasingly involved in the development and implementation of a country's cyber security strategy.

Cybercrime and the Extended Enterprise

It is a continuing problem that the average user is not adequately educated to understand the threats and how to protect oneself. Actually, it is the responsibility of each user to become aware of the threats as well as the opportunities that "connectivity" and "mobility" presents them with. In this context, it is important to understand the concept of "extended enterprise." This term (Figure 1) represents the concept that a company is made up not just of its employees, its board members and executives, but also its business partners, its suppliers and even its customers. The extended enterprise can only be successful if all of the component groups and individuals have the information they need in order to do business effectively. An extended enterprise is a "loosely coupled, self-organizing network" of firms that combine their economic output to provide "provide "products and services" offerings to the market. Firms in the extended enterprise may operate independently, for example, through market mechanisms or cooperatively through agreements and contracts.

Seamless flow of "information" to support instantaneous "decision-making ability" is crucial for the "external enterprise." This becomes possible through the "interconnectedness". Due to the interconnected features of information and communication technologies security overall can only be fully promoted when the users have full awareness of the existing threats and dangers. Governments, businesses and the international community must, therefore, proactively help users' access information on how to protect themselves.

Given the promises and challenges in the extended enterprise scenario, organizations in the international community have a special role in sharing information on good practices, and creating open and accessible enterprise information flow channels for exchanging of ideas in a collaborative manner. International cooperation at the levels of government, industry, consumer, business and technical groups to allow a global and coordinated approach to achieving global cyber security is the key.