UK’s Office for National Statistics said the most regular form of cyber crime is malware attacks.
2.5 million.
That’s how many cases of cyber crime were reported in the U.K. last year. And that’s just the ones that were reported.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) issued statistics on hacking and cybercrime for the first time in its crime survey and said the most common form of cybercrime is malware attacks.
Email and social media hacking were also among the most commonly reported cybercrime techniques. Attacks of this kind are so widespread that it has made privacy cheap where data from stolen credit cards can be sold for $5.
And credit card details is just one offering under the “crime-as-service,” which also offers online payment service login credentials, premium content service login credentials and enterprise network login credentials on the dark Web.
As alarming as the number 2.5 million seems, it’s actually just a fraction of the number of attacks that actually happen, as most of them go unreported. “While the figures released today may appear high, I am certain that cybercrime remains one of the most under reported areas in our crime statistics,” said Louise Pordage, senior manager in KPMG’s cybersecurity practice.
James Murphy, associate director for defense and security at techUK, added: “The only way we can successfully tackle the growing threat to people and businesses is for police, industry and victim support to work together to better protect and prevent against such crimes.”
Even so, businesses aren’t doing everything they can to avert threats.
A recent study surveying 708 IT professionals in the U.S. found 1 in 3 companies lacked a policy framework for information security and data encryption. Companies also don’t feel confident that they it can thwart cyber attacks, internal or external.
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