Whilst logging into his online banking one day Dmitri noticed that one of his accounts had disappeared. "I phoned the bank and they said I'd opted to hide it, but 'don't worry your $7,000 is safe" Dmitri remembers. "In fact there was $80,000 in the account!". A cyber gang were half way through taking over Dmitri's identity. In the following days his mobile phone and internet were disconnected and no one would believe he hadn't made the changes himself. Online crime has got to such a level that a leading figure in online law enforcement believes that "at some stage there will be real debate on the benefit of the internet ... should we switch it off?".

One day, the owner of online gaming site 'Multibet' got an anonymous email threat: if he didn't transfer $20,000 into a Russian account his site would be shut down. "Initial thinking was that it was a hoax" remembers Mr Crane. Two days later the Russians launched a cyber attack commanding thousands of computers around the world to attack the Multibet website. Multibet went down. "The overwhelming feeling initially was anger but quickly it became depression and defeat", explains Mr Crane. "We, we were helpless".

"These organised crime groups are very sophisticated... but they took too many risks" explains Neil, a manager of High Tech Crimes Operations. The Russian extortionists got eight years jail. It was a notable victory for the police, but a rare one. "The anonymous nature of the attack now makes it more difficult for law enforcement to track these people down," explains Neil.

'Botnets' are the new powerful weapon of choice for cyber crooks. With one click on a website infected by malware, you could become a slave to a central computer, joining millions of other infected computers in what's called a botnet. Not only can all of your information be stolen but your computer can be used to spam millions of people, attack businesses or even countries, without you noticing a thing. "Around one in six computers in Australia is, or has been, a zombie computer, part of a botnet," explains Neil.

Cyber criminals or would-be cyber criminals who do end up in court receive lenient treatment. "It seems you're a bit of a nerd" a judge said to 20 year old Brendon Taylor, who attempted to sell over 50,000 replicated credit cards online. Taylor got off with a $2,000 good behaviour bond. Yet these 'nerds' constitute the greatest security threat of our generation. A chilling exposure of the dark side of our technology obsession.

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