Brazil 'home to 80 per cent of world's hackers'

If you're a hacker, chances are you're more than familiar with samba - and not just the Unix server software. Federal police in Brazil have declared that eight out of 10 hackers are living in the South American country.

The Brazilian capital Brasilia is hosting a meeting - Conferência Internacional de Perícias em Crimes Cibernéticos - of some 500 experts from 20 countries with a view to tackling cybercrime.

Currently, hacking isn't actually an offence in itself in Brazil: to convict Brazilians of online wrongdoing, the federal police have to prove theft or fraud. Laws governing cybercrime are now under review. The conference also hopes to encourage research into how to stop the criminals.

Financial losses from cybercrime in Brazil now exceed those from bank robberies, with the country home to a significant number of black hat hacker gangs, including the group which won a competition last year to deface the most number of websites in a given time.