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The UK will opt into an EU directive to take action against cyber criminals operating overseas, the government has announced.
Home Office minister James Brokenshire said the Attacks Against Information Systems allows British police to work more closely with agencies abroad to identify suspects, gather evidence and bring criminals to justice.
In a statement to MPs on Thursday, Brokenshire said the number of global web users had increased from 16 million in 1995 to more than the present 1.7 billion.
He warned that with the expansion of the internet has come the growth of a new type of crime and a risk to our national security.
"We now face a real, ongoing and persistent threat from other states, terrorists and criminals operating online," he told MPs.
"They are stealing commercial secrets, they are trying to take sensitive government information and they are defrauding ordinary people.
"Cybercrime, often carried out by organised criminals, is now a major and growing threat to all sectors of our economy, and we should be in no doubt: online attacks can have a significant real-world impact, from people's bank accounts being emptied to industrial plants and critical infrastructure being disrupted."
As a result, the government had decided to opt into the directive, though it was not "perfect" and the government would work to ensure the final text was in Britain's interests.
"It fits with our approach of making Britain a tougher place for online criminals to operate in and it will mean that the reach of our law enforcement agencies extends outside our borders," he said.
Shadow Home Office minister Diana Johnson welcomed the announcement from the government and said a "robust and consistent approach" was needed.
Johnson said the government should have opted into the directive much sooner so it could have had more of a say in how it was set out.
She told MPs: "It's clear that there is a growing threat of large-scale simultaneous attacks against information systems and increased use by criminals of so-called botnets - networks of computers infected by a virus which can be activated remotely.
She added: "Whilst welcoming the announcement of the opt-in in this directive, it is deeply disappointing that the government has failed to opt in to the directive on human trafficking and we would ask the government to think again on this issue."
Bill Cash (Con, Stone) said he would have like to have received notice of the statement. He said the initial draft of the direction was "deficient".
He asked why the scrutiny process has been circumvented.
James Clappsion (Con, Hertsmere) told MPs: "The motivation for this change in the law may be worthwhile, it may not be worthwhile.
"But there is a question of how and where we determine the legislation that governs this country."
He suggested the creation of new criminal offences was being done without parliamentary debate.
Tom Brake (Lib Dem, Carshalton and Wallington) said the directive would "strengthen the UK's leadership role in the fight against cyber-crime".
He added that similar gains could be secured by singing up to trafficking agreements.
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