This is despite the fact that the incidence of cybercrime have doubled since 1999. In fact, 67 percent of respondents to AusCERT's 2002 Australian Computer Crime and Security Survey reported at least one computer security "incident" in 2002.
Leif Gamertsfelder, leader of the e-security group at Australian law firm Deacons, puts the increase down to a game of statistics.
"As the Internet is embraced by a wider group of organisations, there is a greater pool of potential hackers and victims," Gamertsfelder says. "As there are more tools available on the Internet that make hacking more accessible, you will see an exponential growth in the number or reported attacks."
While a recent government announcement will see the Australian Federal Police resources increased by AU$6.8 million during the next four years, this funding boost will only go part of the way to filling the hole.
Dr Tim Cranny, manager for product development at IT security group 90East, says the police forces at both a state and federal level are "endemically under-resourced" when it comes to combating cybercrime.
"The magnitude of the issue is massively under-appreciated," Cranny says. "There are no reporting mechanisms in place, so collectively we have little opportunity to learn from our mistakes."
In a sign that the Federal Government might be taking the problem more seriously, this year's Federal Budget saw $6.8 million dedicated to e-security during the next four years. According to a spokesperson for the Australian Federal Police (AFP), the majority of the funding will be targeted at additional staff and training for the National Information Infrastructure (NII).
"The funding will be used to improve security awareness and management of the NII," an AFP spokesperson said. "To protect Australia's critical infrastructure from attack and to expand NII incident analysis and response."
With similar funding increases yet to be announced outside the Commonwealth, police in each state are currently participating in a total review of the way e-crime is handled in Australia.
According to Ian Appleby, manager of computer security for New South Wales Police, the review will focus on how to apply limited resources to an ever-expanding problem.
"The strategies we are looking at will review the possible civilianisation of the e-crime units, where the forensic technicians may be civilian police officers," Appleby says. "That then frees up the sworn officers to other duties."
The e-crime strategy will also focus on retention through providing skill paths and ongoing training. And while retention is recognised as an issue in all states, it would appear it is most strongly felt in New South Wales where competition for qualified staff is highest.
Tony Rankine, Superintendent of the serious fraud investigation branch at South Australian Police, says personnel retention had not been an issue, although staffing levels and lack of resources are an ongoing concern.
"We are implementing a two year work plan focussing on e-crime prevention, partnerships, education needs and present capabilities," Rankine says. "We are looking at whether we need to outsource some of the investigation work."
In a similar vein, Detective Sergeant Darren Soppa, charged with the forensic computer examination unit in the Queensland Police Force is focussing limited resources on proactive rather than reactive campaigns.
"At present, a lot of the investigation is reactive, however we are looking at increasingly proactive campaigns, where the emphasis is on community and corporate sector education," Soppa says.
Although state police forces across the country are looking for new and innovative ways to combat resource restrictions, Ted Wisniewski, officer in charge of computer crime investigation in the Western Australian Police, says the service generally is caught in a reporting catch 22.
"On the one hand there is a problem with resourcing in this area across all the police agencies," Wisniewski says. "But resources will only be put into an area where there is a perceived need for it, until people make it known that these events are actually occurring, we are not going to get the resources to address the issue."
