According to John Lawler, the ACC's chief executive, there are now virtually limitless opportunities for organised crime to 'go virtual' and since there are significant vulnerabilities with the technology, cybercrminals are now exploiting the new crime platform.
Lawler, who is quoted by the Futuregov Asia Pacific newswire, said that: "if we know anything about organised crime networks it is that they see this [cloud computing] and any future technological change as being ripe with the potential for profit."
"We know this because history tells us that the growth of organised crime has mirrored the growth of a more globalised world", he told the newswire.
Building on a presentation on the topic that he made at the International Serious and Organised Crime event in Melbourne last October, Lawler said that there seems no end to the specialist areas that are being examined in the field of organised crime. He also noted that the information that people provide when they make a purchase, sign up for memberships, answer surveys and join competitions online is now raw material for economic activity.
This information, he told FutureGov, can be analysed, augmented, used, sold or rented -not just locally but globally and with tremendous speed.
Because of these issues, the ACC's chief executive said that criminal investigation agencies now need to continuously question our methods and approaches and ask if they remain viable in a virtual world.
"We need to ask whether we have the appropriate skill sets to tackle a new paradigm of organised crime", he told the newswire, adding that, if not, "we need to think about how we can go about gaining those skills."
Infosecurity notes that Lawler's comments come in the wake of a year that has seen Australia leap-frog ahead in the global cybersecurity investigation stakes, with an investigative model that is being watched by a number of countries.