London, UK - 9 November 2005, 12:00 GMT - CEOs and boards need to be vigilant about the threats posed by a global organised crime industry that has the capacity to be able to bring down firms at will. For while the audit process can effectively identify financial risks, UK businesses of every size are at risk from the activities of cyber criminals, including digital fraud and extortion. That is the message DK Matai, Chairman of bespoke online security firm mi2g, will deliver to delegates at tomorrow's (Thursday 10 November) CIMA Annual Conference in London, as global organised crime is estimated to have a gross annual profit of between US$1.25 and $1.5 trillion per annum - roughly equivalent to the GDP of the UK.

The warning from DK Matai will come as he joins an expert line-up of economists and business leaders at the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants' annual conference. It also coincides with a prediction by the mi2g Intelligence Unit that there is a growing requirement for governmental intervention to protect economic targets, in the face of an almost doubling of hacking incidents every three months, which have moved away from government departments to focus on SMEs and large corporations.

Speaking at tomorrow's CIMA conference, DK Matai will tell delegates: "With as much as 25 per cent of organised criminal activity operating behind the safety of a nominally legal business, and identity theft, denial of service, phishing scams and credit card fraud all rising, organised and cyber crime is an issue with the potential to affect businesses of every size in the UK. That means criminal and extremist groups have the capacity to bring a small, medium or large business down at their will and boards need to beware."

[ENDS]

For interviews, photographs and further information please contact:

Lynda Hardy Maskell
Chief Press Officer, CIMA
+44 (0) 20 8849 2347

Notes to editors:

CIMA (the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) is a leading professional body that offers an internationally recognised qualification in management accountancy, focussing on accounting in business. It is the fastest growing UK based membership body, in terms of members, in both the UK and worldwide and is the voice of over 150,000 members and students in 156 countries. CIMA is responsible for the education and training of management accountants who work in industry, commerce and not-for-profit and has more members in the public sector than any other UK based body. CIMA prides itself on the commercial relevance of its syllabus, which is in tune with the activities of high performance organisations, and evolves continually reflecting the latest developments in global business. It is committed to upholding the highest ethical and professional standards of members and students, and to maintaining public confidence in management accountancy. For more information about CIMA, please visit www.cimaglobal.com

mi2g is at the leading edge of building secure on-line banking, broking and trading architectures. The principal applications of its technology are: 1. D2-Banking; 2. Digital Risk Management; and 3. Bespoke Security Architecture. For more information about mi2g, please visit: www.mi2g.net

Conference programme and CIMA Note follows:

CIMA 2005 Annual Conference

08.30 Arrival, registration and coffee

09.00 Welcome - CIMA's President with Chair Sarah Montague, Presenter of Radio 4's Today Programme

09.10 Keynote speaker - Stephen King, Group Chief Economist and Global Head of Economics and Strategy Research, HSBC Bank plc

Stephen King will talk about 'The Global Economic Outlook 2006', the opportunities, challenges and dangers. In particular Stephen will present on the following three topics: the peculiar effects of oil prices, the globalisation of inflation and the impact of China.

09.40 Mergers and acquisitions - luck and leadership - David Jones, Chairman of NEXT plc

David Jones will talk about the power of financial turnaround and how, under his leadership, NEXT increased its stock market valuation from £25 million to £4 billion. All delegates will receive a copy of his autobiography NEXT TO ME: Luck, Leadership and Living with Parkinsons.

10.25 Coffee

10.45 Business recovery - Mick McLoughlin, Global and UK Head of Corporate Recovery, KPMG

Mick McLoughlin will offer advice to accountants in business about turning corporations around and about gaining the vision and the financial and legal knowledge to do so.

11.30 Operating and financial review - Janice Lingwood, Director in the UK ValueReporting team, PricewaterhouseCoopers

Research suggests that investors want a broader set of information beyond the current financial reporting model in order to assess the sustainability of a company's performance. Attend this briefing to find out more about what information investors want, how the new OFR has the potential to address some of these needs and how the process of developing an OFR can have some very real benefits for companies themselves.

12.15 International Accounting Standards - Allister Wilson, Financial Reporting Group, Ernst and Young - sponsored by CCH

Allister Wilson will talk about the changing face of financial reporting under International Financial Reporting Standards, and will ask whether financial reporting today meets the needs of management, is relevant to the needs of the user and is readily understandable to investors.

12.45 'The outsourcing of MyTravel's finance function: the journey so far' Aidan Connolly - MyTravel - sponsored by Xansa

This presentation provides insight into the outsourcing of the finance function at MyTravel starting with the context and concept, moving on to implementation and concluding with the lessons learned and potential future steps.

13.00 Lunch

13.45 Cybercrime - DK Matai, Executive Chairman of mi2g and Chairman of ATCA

This session will shine the spotlight on organised crime and radical agendas which are increasingly manifest via the internet in every corporate environment. Phishing scams, spam, viruses and worms as well as illegal file sharing of music, video and pornography have now become common place. These escalating risks can cause the collapse of a large corporate business even though the present financial auditing regime may confirm business as usual.

14.30 Pensions - Professor Steven Haberman, Professor of Actuarial Science and Deputy Dean of CASS Business School

Professor Steven Haberman will talk on the very latest Pensions' study. As an academic and an expert in this field, he will present his thoughts on how business and accountants in business should be approaching the Pensions' debacle and shed light on how companies might develop best practice in complex situations.

15.15 Coffee

15.35 Corporate Governance expert panel - Panel comprising:

Paul Boyle - Chief Executive, Financial Reporting Council (FRC); David Devlin - President, European Federation of Accountants (FEE);
Peter Montagnon - Director of Investment Affairs, Association of British Insurers (ABI); David Turner - Group Marketing Director, CODA

The panel will present issues, ranging from current trends and future developments to internal controls and the impact of Sarbanes-Oxley. There will also be the opportunity to question the panel in the Q&A session.

16.20 Maximising shareholder value - David Tyler, Group Finance Director of GUS plc

David Tyler will talk about the maximisation of shareholder value, the drivers of value and the importance of growth. He will illustrate this with references to his experience at GUS.

17.05 CIMA Professional Development - Robert Jelly, Director of Education, CIMA

17.20 Conference close - Chair and Ray Perry, Director of Brand, CIMA