Annual cost of fraud and cybercrime tops £10.9bn in the UK
The annual cost of fraud and cybercrime to the UK purse has been put at £10.9bn, the equivalent of £210 for every adult, according to research compiled by the campaign group Get Safe Online.
Covering the 12 months to April and covers all examples of online fraud ranging from fraudulent phishing messages to extract the personal details of victims, so called ransomware and the theft of dating through hacking.
In a bid to stem these losses the organisation is calling on individuals to employ many different strong passwords and not to rely on just one or two easily remembered words to manage their online lives. It also advises tightening social media security to ensure only friends and family can view status updates.
Tony Neate, chief executive of Get Safe Online, said: “Let’s not let cyber criminals get away with it anymore by ensuring that each and every one of us is updating the operating systems of our various devices and ensuring security software is always updated. What’s more we all need to ensure that we have a different password for each online account we own and website we visit. Online safety needs to be part of our everyday routines.”
People are also advised to back-up important files and documents to hard drives or cloud storage services.