British businesses count £1bn cost of cyber crime
British businesses have been left to count the £1bn cost of cybercrime last year after the number of reported online fraud crimes jumped by a quarter over the year to March, reaching 37,070 according to the City of London’s Action Fraud reporting centre and Get Safe Online.
In financial terms businesses in each police force area reported a £19m loss on average as a result of this activity with the biggest jump in fraud accounted for by so called mandate fraud, where victims are conned into updating payment details to those of a criminal.
Other growing scams include extortion through ransomware where a victim is told to pay a set sum to regain access to their own data whilst fraud by a company’s own employees is also a growing problem.
City of London Police commander Chris Greany said: “Businesses are a major target for fraudsters and these figures illustrate the significant rise in Action Fraud reports.
“The true figure will be much higher and businesses need to take steps as many of these crimes could be prevented."
Hacking remains the single largest form of cybercrime with 1,000 cases reported over the past year, although incidences of cheque, card and online banking fraud actually declined by 21 per cent.
The true figure for such crimes is likely to be far higher however.