ONS: cyber crime against businesses rose more than 60 per cent in 2017

Attacks like WannaCry meant that virus outbreaks more than doubled

Businesses are now more at risk from cyber crime than consumers, according to data collated by the Office for National Statistics.

The ONS gathers its data, which it has now released in its annual report on cybercrime in the UK, from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) (households), and the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) (business). Both have strengths and weaknesses, which the ONS has detailed in the document.

Data on fraud and computer misuse has only been part of the CSEW's survey since late 2015, so trends are hard to calculate. However, the period ending September 2017 showed 4.7 million incidents (3.2 million of fraud): a 15 per cent YoY decrease.

Computer misuse in particular was down 24 per cent (1.5 million offences), mainly due to a fall in reported incidents of computer viruses (26 per cent, to 1 million incidents). In this context, ‘virus' refers to all malicious software and attacks, including malware and DDoS.

23 per cent of cases of computer misuse involved the loss of money or goods, all relating to computer viruses (410,000 incidents).

Separately, however, Action Fraud (which refers incidents to the NFIB) said that computer misuse amongst businesses rose 63 per cent, with cases involving computer viruses up 145 per cent.

Andy Waterhouse, EMEA director at RSA Security, said:

"While it's great to see that hackers are starting to draw their attention away from consumers, organisations and UK infrastructure are facing tougher conditions than ever as hackers chase greater profits. The aftershock from major ransomware attacks last year such as WannaCry and NotPetya is evident. These highly-weaponised threats now have the ability to replicate and spread at an unfathomable pace, putting critical UK infrastructure and businesses at risk with every attack."

Managers and ‘professionals' are more likely to be a victim of fraud (8 per cent) than individuals in intermediate occupations (general office work such as clerical, sales or service roles) (6.1 per cent); routine or manual occupations (4.6 per cent), full-time students (4.6 per cent); and those who have never worked or are in long-term unemployment (2 per cent).