UK Cybercrime Report 2009

The 2009 UK Cybercrime Report was published in September this year. It is the third consecutive report published by Garlik.

The report, which analyzes publicly available data to build a comprehensive view of cybercrime in the UK, revealed 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). In addition, the researchers believe that there is a growing complacency amongst consumers, demonstrating poor understanding of their responsibility to protect their personal information against fraud.

One of the most significant changes in cybercrime has been the 207% increase in account takeover fraud indicating that criminals have now shifted their efforts from opening new accounts with stolen identities to accessing existing accounts.

The report also highlights that online banking fraud has increased by a staggering 132%, with losses totaling £52.5 million, compared to £22.6 million in the previous year. This sharp rise can be mostly attributed to nearly 44,000 phishing websites specifically targeting banks and building societies in the UK.

The total number of cybercrimes has increased annually between 2006 and 2008, however, the good news is that sexual offences have decreased as a category each year. All other categories dipped in 2007 but then in 2008 bounced back above their 2006 figure.