Instances of cyber fraud have risen dramatically since 2015, with multi million pound cases being taken to the UK courts – including the largest recorded since 2008.
The UK is suffering a surge of professional criminals fraudulently compromising unsuspecting victims via cybercrime.
Professional criminals are conning people out of thousands of pounds, using methods like cold calling bank customers claiming to be the bank fraud team and persuading them to hand over bank details.
It is worrying the rate that cybercrime is increasing, but it is inevitable with the advancements of technology, and amount of technology each person holds: smart phones, other mobile devices, laptops, PCs and a myriad of ‘smart’ devices.
Mark James, ESET IT Security Specialist, discusses the tip of the iceberg when it comes to catching criminals from outside the UK.
“The ‘iceberg’ as we describe it, is indeed very large.
“Whilst there is a huge amount of cybercrime that goes undiscovered, the good thing is more and more is getting reported as the public is impacted by the breaches that are happening on an almost weekly basis.
“As more of our data is being stolen and collated, then our chances of being successfully scammed increases because of the factual information we are presented with in those scam or phishing emails.
“The UK, along with many other countries, work closely to limit the damage cybercriminals do to the public but often because of international boundaries or restrictions the criminals are able to avoid prosecutions because of their location.
“The fact is cyber-fraud is rising and will continue to do so, but we can and do find new ways to combat it. With hardware, software, knowledge and awareness the attack vector can be massively reduced making it so much harder for cyber thieves to be successful.
“We need to move away from the old way of thinking it’s the “IT” guys or departments job to keep us safe.
“There is so much we can do individually to be more aware of the dangers we now face on a daily basis and how we can combat them.
“Brexit could certainly cause a few more barriers initially but we are all striving for the same goal and I am sure we will continue to improve our reaction times and defences in this modern state of cyber warfare.”
Do you think cybercrime will begin to plateau, or continue to increase? Let us know on Twitter @ESETUK
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