Thousands of IT security specialists are converging on London this week for the annual Infosecurity show.

Lord Broers, chairman of the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee, will open the show, joined by fellow parliamentarians Derek Wyatt MP, chairman of the All Party Internet Group, and Lord Erroll.

Top of the discussion agenda will be identity management, both in the private and public spheres.

"In the real world we meet people and decide if we will trust them based on the credibility of their introducer, then build further trust through our social interaction such as having a meeting or exchanging hospitality," said Lord Erroll.

"I think that it is unrealistic of central government to believe it can use ID management to control the bad citizen or visitor.

"People should have the right to assume a different persona in different aspects of their lives, and to be allowed some privacy."

Education is also going to be under discussion, for the general public and for private business. While not a silver bullet to deal with online crime, it nevertheless has a role to play.

Tony Neate, managing director of Get Safe Online, said: "We need to become more aware and educated against these new threats from the home user to the multinational, and from the computer and technology industry to government and law enforcement.

"However, in order to be effective we also need to know the scale of the problem, and this can only be measured if we report incidents when they occur.

"How and to whom we report is a matter for debate, whether it is the ISP, bank or local police. Without collating the scale of the problem, we will never truly be aware of the cost to society at large and the measures needed to fight it."

Vnunet.com will be at the show for the next three days, bringing interviews, the latest news and reports on conference sessions.