Growth in UK cybercrime increased throughout 2008 at levels not seen since 2006.

And the reason is the credit crunch, says Garlik’s third annual UK Cybercrime report, which fuelled a massive growth in cybercrime. Another contributing factor has been consumer complacency.

The researchers behind the report analyse public data to build a comprehensive view of cybercrime. It was clear that during 2008 cybercriminals adapted to the social and economic changes in the UK to exploit victims in new ways and commit over 3.6 million criminal acts online (that’s over one every 10 seconds).

Furthermore, a growing complacency was noted amongst consumers which demonstrated poor understanding of their responsibility to protect their personal information against fraud.

This was reinforced by findings which showed a 20% increase in account takeover, indicating that criminals have now shifted their efforts from opening new accounts with stolen identities to accessing existing accounts.

The report also discovered that online banking fraud increased by a staggering 132%, with losses totalling £52.5 million, compared to £22.6 million in the previous year. And responsible for most of this were 44,000 phishing websites which specifically targeted UK banks and building societies.

Tom Ilube, CEO, Garlik, said:
“We fear that account takeover fraud will continue to increase in 2009 due to the decline of available credit and tighter credit checking by the banks. Consumers must be extra vigilant of all their online and financial accounts as well as avoiding increasingly convincing phishing scams.

“As threats shift and change, it is essential for consumers to take steps for their own safety: even if they think that it is ‘someone else’s problem’. It is not. Consumers need to be smart online and stay one step ahead of the cybercriminals.”

Dr Stefan Fafinski, of Invenio Research which owns Garlik, said:
“One possible explanation for the sharp rise in cybercrime lies in the consumer reaction to it. Identity theft in particular received a great deal of media and public attention in 2006. As a result, many consumers took the first steps to protect themselves, buying shredders and anti-malware software to feel secure but have since become too complacent and as a result have been hit by the next wave of cybercrime”.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

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