The Government has severely underestimated the threat the country faces from cyber-crime and risks having its own networks breached by foreign spies if it doesn't devote more resources to the problem, the security industry has said.

The Prime Minister's new security strategy, outlined yesterday. didn't do nearly enough to address what security companies called the "shockingly low" awareness of cyber-crime among both businesses and individuals, according to security experts. They said the strategy also underplayed the threat posed by foreign governments intent on bringing down UK networks

State-sponsored attacks on foreign networks have been an increasingly important issue for the security industry since it emerged in December that the head of MI5 had sent a letter to the heads of Britain's largest companies warning them that the Chinese Government was attempting to penetrate their computer systems.

Gordon Brown said yesterday that the Government was alert to new internet-based threats, but security companies said that its failure to establish a specialist unit to deal specifically with cyber-crime meant that the problem was still not receiving the attention it deserved.

"It's extremely disappointing that cyber-terrorism was not more of a focus in the Government's security strategy," said Greg Day, a security analyst at McAfee, referring to attacks on Estonia's computer systems last year that were alleged to be the work of Russian authorities.

Mr Day said that the UK still had "a long way to go" in recognising the risks posed to both Government networks and regular internet users by cyber-crime, and that the decision to merge the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit with the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) meant that resources were being spread "too thinly".

Alan Phillips, chief executive of 7Safe, another security company, said that the Government had "severely underestimated" the opportunities for criminals that "widescale use of the internet" had opened up. "Cybercrime is not going to fade away, and I fear that the lack of a realistic budget for addressing it will come back and bite us hard," he said.

Simon Owen, head of security for EMEA at Deloitte, said he was encouraged that the Government now recognised the threat posed by cyber-crime, but questioned whether sufficient resources were being devoted to the problem.

"Foreign governments and unscrupulous individuals around the world are spending significant amounts of time and money to find holes in the UK's national infrastructure, and I'm discouraged that the Government hasn't given more details of the investment they're planning to make," he said. "Words are great, but the question is really whether they can be translated into action."

In its security strategy, the Government made reference to the threat businesses and individuals faced from cyber-crime, and acknowledged that other countries were attempting to gather intelligence about Britain by penetrating computer networks via the internet.

But the document fell short of setting out proposals that the security industry has called for, such as the creation of a specific national agency to tackle cyber-crime, as well as the introduction of disclosure laws compelling companies to tell customers when their systems had been compromised.

David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, said the Government's proposals were "underwhelming". "To protect ourselves - against both the persistent criminal threat and the rarer but more devastating terrorist threat - will require a shake up in attitudes and strategy, including the whole mindset of government.”

The criticisms came as the US Government unveiled details of a new agency designed to tackle cyber-crime, the National Cyber Security Centre, which will co-ordinate the sharing of information about attacks that attempt to disable government computer networks.

Rob Cotton, chief executive of NCC Group, an IT security company, said: "Awareness of security threats is still shockingly low, and there's a great deal of complacency across all sectors. Businesses along with public sector organisations need support, education and encouragement to take cyber-security seriously."

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