Of 200 companies surveyed, 89% said that they had experienced
some form of hi-tech crime during that period, with 90% suffering
from unauthorised access to, or penetration of, their company
systems, while 89% suffered theft of information or data.
Ninety-seven percent of respondents said they had experienced
virus attacks which had cost them £71 million, while financial
fraud had cost 9% of them £68 million.
Launched on the first day of the NHTCU's e-Crime Congress 2005,
the survey showed that yet again companies are more concerned about
the effect a security incident might have on their business, rather
than the damage this might have on their reputation, with 69% of
respondents citing this, and worry about public image stated by
only 17%.
However, the survey highlighted that not all the attacks were
from an external source. Crimes committed by employees were also
listed, with sabotage of data and networks topping the bill. Even
so, more than a quarter of those surveyed did not undertake regular
security audits.
Detective Superintendent Mick Deats, Deputy Head of the National
Hi-Tech Crime Unit said:
"Over the past year, we have seen a sustained increase in the
professionalism of cybercriminals. Companies are taking the brunt
of criminals attempts to steal money and data, but consumers are
also being hit.
"Billions of pounds are being lost to the UK economy through
hi-tech crime, but on a positive note, we should acknowledge the
increased effort put in by companies to protect themselves and
their customers from this threat.
"The sharing of information between business and law enforcement
is giving us the tools to put in place better defences to tackle
hi-tech crime. It is only through better understanding of the scale
and the scope of the problem that we will be able to build
effective strategies to deal with it."
