Cyber attacks affected 5.8m users to March 2016

A Report published today reveals that 5.8m people affected by cyber attacks and cyber crime in England and Wales to March 2016.

Figures published by the Office National Statistics – ONS – suggest the main fraudulent issues are connected to online banking and online shopping.

New questions on fraud and computer misuse were added to the Crime Survey for England and Wales in October 2015.

Based on these new questions, adults aged 16 and over experienced an estimated 3.8 million incidents of fraud, with just over half of these (51%; 1.9 million incidents) being cyber-related.

The most common types of fraud experienced were “Bank and credit account” fraud (2.5 million incidents; 66% of the total), followed by “Non-investment” fraud – such as fraud related to online shopping or fraudulent computer service calls (1.0 million incidents; 28% of the total).

In addition, adults experienced an estimated 2.0 million computer misuse incidents; around two-thirds (68%; 1.4 million incidents) of these were computer virus related and around one-third (32%; 0.6 million incidents) were related to unauthorised access to personal information (including hacking).

Speaking on the BBC, Commander Chris Greany, from the City of London Police and National Coordinator for Economic Crime, said that online crime is a challenge for everyone. He recommended that Users should invest in online security and stop and think before responding to illicit emails.

In May this year, Commander Greany, was appointed as the new Chairman of Get Safe Online.