A Snapshot Of Cyber Security In Britain

A Snapshot Of Cyber Security In Britain


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Digital technology has affected most parts of our daily life and it has changed our work, study, leisure time and social lives and very few businesses - from large multinational organisations to small cottage industries - would be able to function without it. 

The global cyber security landscape has seen increased threats in recent years. Through the pandemic, cyber criminals took advantage of misaligned networks as businesses moved to remote work environments and in 2020, malware attacks increased 358% compared to 2019.

In many ways we are reliant on technology to function, both as individuals, and as a wider society. This reliance presents an opportunity for those criminals who, for monetary, ideological or personal reasons, may seek to attack those devices on which we all rely. At one extreme, this could involve holding elements of the national infrastructure to ransom, or, at the other, the unauthorised accessing of a person’s private accounts to bully and intimidate. 

Cyber crime is impacting users across the globe. As individuals and businesses increasingly rely on internet-connected devices, malicious attackers continue to take advantage. Now, more than ever, we need to be on high alert.   

The CyberEdge 2022 Cyberthreat Defence Report (CDR) provides an overview of cyber security in countries all over the world. The rate at which companies were hit with ransomware attacks.

Nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of UK organisations dealt with a ransomware attack, a 15 percent rise on the previous year. This put it just behind South Africa (82 percent), USA (81.6 percent), Singapore (78 percent), and Saudi Arabia (77.6 percent).  The hardest hit was China in which nine out of 10 organisations suffered ransomware attacks (89.6 percent) over the 12 months prior to the study.

The average security spend as a percentage of a company’s IT budget ranged from 10.7 percent in France to 15.6 percent in Brazil. UK firms had the fifth-lowest spend at just over 11 percent of their respective IT budgets.

Cyber Crime In The United Kingdom

The UK is far from immune to the impacts of cyber crime and is feeling the effects of various threats such as ransomware attacks, data breaches, and online fraud. In November 2020, the UK government launched the new National Cyber Force (NCF)  to tackle the growing problem of cyber crime.

Most businesses still have cyber security skills gaps despite myriad government initiatives which have tried to solve the issue. But the national cyber skills gap persists despite years of government-backed initiatives, as latest figures show that more than half (51%) of all private sector businesses in the UK have identified a shortage of basic technical cyber security skills. An estimated 697,000 businesses in the UK have low confidence in carrying out basic tasks like setting up automatic software updates and securely transferring personal data.

Phishing remains the most common form of crime committed online. In 2021, a total of 323,972 internet users fell victim to phishing attacks. This means half of the users who suffered a data breach fell for a phishing attack. But cyber crime in the UK is not going away and cyber security is top of mind for individuals and businesses.  Here in the UK a lack of resources is, arguably, the chief hindrance to the fight against cyber crime. But both the City of London Police, which coordinates the UK’s anti-fraud efforts, and local forces lack the resources to tackle this workload. Police forces are also hampered by inconsistent investment in cyber security skills says Carl Wearn, a former detective sergeant with the Metropolitan Police and now head of e-crime at security provider Mimecast. “We need officers across the board, even relief response officers, to be aware of how to deal with certain aspects of this to help victims of crime,” he explains. While officers may be given emergency training as and when funding becomes available, Wearn says there is no longer-term plan for cybersecurity skills development.

More than 80% of UK organisations experienced a successful attack in 2021/2022 and . It found that in the UK, 81.4 percent of organisations had experienced at least one cyber attack in the year prior to the study, compared to 71.1 percent in the previous annual findings. While this sounds high, the UK was far from the worst-hit country with Colombia (93.9 percent), Turkey (93.7 percent), and Spain (91.8 percent) all seeing a higher portion of organisations deal with attacks.

Over a 12-month period, ransomware attacks affected 73% of UK organisations.

The Sophos ransomware report delves into ransomware statistics specifically and found that, in the UK, organisations managed to block 43 percent of ransomware attacks before data was encrypted. This was above the average of 35 percent. To put things in perspective, organisations in India stopped just 20 percent of ransomware attacks prior to data encryption. At the other end of the scale, cyber criminals had a 62 percent fail rate in encrypting the data of organisations in Saudi Arabia. 66% of organisations were hit by ransomware in the last year, up from 37% in 2020.

This is a 78% increase over the course of a year, demonstrating that adversaries have become more capable of executing the most significant attacks at scale. 

This likely also reflects the growing success of the Ransomware-as-a-Service model which significantly extends the reach of ransomware by reducing the skill level required to deploy an attack. Adversaries have also become more successful at encrypting data in their attacks. In 2021 attackers succeeded in encrypting data in 65% of attacks, an increase on the 54% encryption rate reported in 2020. However, there was a reduction from 7% to 4% in the percentage of victims that experienced an extortion-only attack where data was not encrypted but the organisation was held to ransom with the threat of exposing data. 

The increase in successful ransomware attacks is part of an increasingly challenging broader threat environment: over the last year 57% experienced an increase in the volume of cyber attacks overall, 59% saw the complexity of attacks increase, and 53% said the impact of attacks had increased. 72% saw an increase in at least one of these areas. 

13% of UK Organisations Pay Ransom

For attacks that were successful, around 13 percent of UK companies went ahead and paid the ransom demanded by cyber criminals. This is well below the global average of 26 percent and far lower than the top payers. In India, 66 percent of organisations paid while in Sweden, the figure was 50 percent, and in the Philippines, 32 percent.
The average cost of ransomware attacks in the UK was around $1.08 million

While only a small portion of companies paid the ransom, ransomware attacks can still be very expensive to fix.

Indeed, Sophos found that the average cost for UK organisations was $1.08 million. However, this is still a substantial decrease from the $1.96 million reported in 2021. Belgium and Nigeria headed the list with average costs of $3.71 million and $3.43 million respectively. In Turkey, the average cost was just $0.37 million.
77% of UK firms have Cyber Security Insurance

Cyber insurance is a hot topic these days and an increasing number of companies are rolling it into their policies. Some 77 percent of UK organisations have cyber insurance. 

This places it below the global average of 82 percent. Among those with the highest rate of cyber security insurance are Chile (96 percent), Poland (91 percent), and Sweden (also 91 percent). Cyber insurance cover was less common among organisations in Israel at just 66 percent.

1.6% of spam originates in the UK

A Kaspersky report shows how much spam originates in various regions around the globe. The top offenders were Russia (24.77 percent), Germany (14.12 percent), and the United States (10.46 percent). The UK wasn’t without fault however, and contributed 1.66 percent of the world’s spam (up from 1.04 percent in 2020).

Around 8% of people tried to open a phishing link in 2021

Another area of the Kaspersky study looks at how many users in a region have attempted to open phishing links in 2021. Brazil had the worst figures in this regard, with 12.39 percent of users trying to open phishing links. 
However, this was a significant decrease on the 19.94 percent in 2020. The UK saw roughly half of Brazil’s figure at 6.42 percent (down from 2020’s 9.75 percent). Other regions with higher figures included France (12.21 percent) and Portugal (11.40 percent).

1.2% of scam websites have a co.uk domain

The largest portion of scam websites predictably have .com domains. However, according to Kaspersky’s figures, these only account for 31.55 percent of scam websites. Other popular extensions are .xyz (13.71 percent) and .cn (7.14 percent). The UK extension .co.uk accounted for 1.20 percent of all scam sites in 2020 and with no figure available in the 2021 report, it suggests it has become even more uncommon.

The UK is 8th out of 75 for cyber security

A Comparitech report shows that the UK earned a firm top-ten position compared to 74 other countries around the world. The UK did well to rank in eighth place, behind several other European countries. Denmark took the top spot followed by Sweden, Ireland, Norway, Finland, the Netherlands, and Austria.

The UK has issued €44 million worth of GDPR fines

The DLA Piper Data Breach Report 2022 offers insight into the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) fines that have been issued since the regulation was first introduced in 2018. The United Kingdom has issued €45,350,000 worth of fines during that time. While this is high, Luxembourg has an astonishing total of €746,299,400. Ireland ranked second highest at €226,046,500. The highest individual fines were issued in Luxembourg and Ireland

According to DLA Piper, Luxembourg has issued by far the biggest GDPR fine. This stands at €746 million and is against a US online retailer. The second largest fine is from Ireland which issued a fine of €225 million against WhatsApp Ireland Limited. This is followed by a €50 million fine of Google in France.
Only seven GDPR fines have been issued in the UK and while the UK has among the highest fine totals, it has only issued seven fines, that have been made public. This is in stark contrast to Spain where over 200 fines were issued.

The average cost of a data breach in 2021 was over $4.5 million

IBM’s Cost of Data Breach 2021 looks at various statistics surrounding data breaches, including company response times and costs incurred. The average cost of a breach for UK firms in 2020 was $3.9 million. 
However, this rose to $4.67 million in 2021. This was just above the global average of $4.24 million. Regions, where companies lost big to breaches included the US ($9.05 million), the Middle East ($6.93 million), and Canada ($5.40 million).

Most UK breaches are malicious

IBM investigated the root cause of breaches and found that 53 percent of UK breaches were malicious in nature. 23 percent were caused by system glitches and 25 percent by human error. These patterns were fairly similar across the board with the Middle East seeing the highest portion of malicious attacks (59 percent) and Canada the lowest (42 percent).

The average time to identify a UK data breach is 181 days

A key factor in determining the damage caused by a data breach is how long it takes a company to remediate an incident. In the UK, organisations took an average of 181 days to identify the fact that a breach had occurred and a further 75 days to contain the incident. 

With 256 days for identification and containment, the UK was fifth fastest to respond, behind Germany, Canada, South Africa, and the US. The UK was the third most affected country by stalkerware in Europe

The Kaspersky State of Stalkerware Report 2021 examined how often this type of malware affects users in various parts of the globe. The UK had the third-highest number of cases of stalkerware in Europe, with 430 reported incidents. Germany had 1,012 and Italy 611. Elsewhere in the world, Russia was the hardest hit with 7,541 incidents, followed by Brazil (4,807) and the US (2,319).

Stalkerware enables people to secretly spy on other people’s private lives via smart devices and is often used to facilitate psychological and physical violence against intimate partners. 

The software is commercially available and can access an array of personal data, including device location, browser history, text messages, social media chats, photos and more. The marketing of stalkerware is not illegal, but its use without the victim’s consent is. Perpetrators benefit from this vague legal framework that still exists in many countries. Stalkerware is a breach of privacy and a form of tech abuse. 

To address this complex threat in a comprehensive way that best supports victims and survivors, innovative tools from a legislative, social and technological point of view are needed. 

The number of cyber security companies grew 21% in 2020

A report by Atlas VPN found that the UK cyber security industry comprised 1,483 companies in 2020. This was up 21 percent over 2019. In 2017, there were just 846 cyber security companies, meaning the industry has grown 85 percent in three years. Most firms (840) are considered micro in size, having fewer than 10 employees. 327 are small firms with 10–49 employees, 172 are medium-sized (50–249 employees), and 144 are large (250 or more employees).

The UK Cyber Security Industry Employs over 50K people

IPSOS conducted a multi-mode survey with 248 cyber security firms from May to July 2021, and conducted 25 one-to-one consultations with cyber security firms, buyers of cyber security products and services, and investors in the cyber security sector. Among other things, this allowed us to better understand firms’ engagement with cyber sector accelerator schemes, their engagement with regional bodies and organisations, and wider market dynamics.

An IPSOS report tells us that nearly 52,700 people are employed in a cyber security role. This represents an increase of nearly 13 percent compared to 2020. 64 percent of employees work for large organisations (those with 250 employees or more).

2021 UK Cyber Security Industry revenue was over £10 Billion 

IPSOS also reported on the total revenue of the cyber security industry in the UK. It estimated that organisations took in a total of £10.1 billion in 2021. This represented a 14 percent increase compared to the 2020 figure of £8.9 billion.

The average salary for UK cyber security job is £62,500

CW Jobs says the average salary for various types of jobs in the UK. From a sample size of 531 jobs, it determined that the average salary for a cyber security role is £62,500.  As expected, salary ranges depend heavily on location. At the higher end you have Bracknell with an average salary of £82,500 and range of £77,500–£87,500. At the lower end is Manchester where the average salary is £47,500 and the range is £42,500–£52,500.

There were over 400,000 reports of UK fraud and cyber crime in 2021

The NFIB Fraud and Cyber Crime Dashboard shows up-to-date data regarding various types of cyber crime. In 2021, there were 445,357 reports. 382,776 of those reports came from individuals and 60,111 from businesses.
2021-2022 losses to fraud and cyber crime in the UK totaled over £3 billion The NFIB also tracked losses resulting from these reports and found that cyber crime cost £3.1 billion from April 2021 to April 2022.

Online shopping and auction accounted for a lot of reports

Of the NFIB reports in 2021, around 86,000 have been related to online shopping and auctions. The figure in 2020 was 80,500 (24 percent of all reports). However, losses seemed to be more heavily weighted on reports to do with cheques, plastic cards, and online bank accounts. In 2021, £275.7 million in losses were associated with 115,162 reports.

People Aged between 20 to 39 are the Major Target for Cyber Crime

The NFIB even homes in on the age of victims of fraud and cyber crime. The hardest hit seemed to be those in the 20–39 age group. The likelihood of attacks appeared to decrease slightly as age increased. However, there are a lot of factors that could have skewed this data, including the frequency of use of digital technology and the likelihood of victims in certain age groups to report crimes.

Almost 14,000 reports of email and social media hacking in 2021

When we filter out fraud from the data and look at other types of cyber crime, social media and email hacking emerge as a top threat. There were 13,522 such cases in 2021, resulting in £7.8 million in losses, over double that of 2020.

FAQs about UK cyber security and cyber crime

What should I do if my data is breached in the UK?    If your data has been compromised, the first thing to do is change the password for the account involved in the breach. If you believe financial details have been stolen, contact your bank or credit card provider to notify them immediately. If your social media accounts have been hacked, contact your connections to warn them of any dangerous messages the attackers may have sent impersonating you.

How can data breaches be avoided?   There are several steps to prevent your data from being involved in a data breach. For starters, you should choose a strong password consisting of letters, numbers, capital letters, and special characters/symbols. To bolster your account security further, use the following best practices as a guide:

  • Never write down your passwords. Instead, use a password vault. 
  • Where available, set up two-factor authentication on your account.
  • Keep an eye on your credit report for any suspicious changes.
  • Consider a service that includes identity theft monitoring.

How do I identify a scam email?  There are some typical signs to look out for to understand whether an email is fake or not. Firstly, there are often lots of spelling and grammatical errors you wouldn't usually see from the legit sender. The email address name shows as a legit sender, but when you click on the address, it's an entirely different email ID. Scam emails also often ask you to click a link with some urgency to enter your details (such as a username or password).

Reporting Cyber Crime to Action Fraud 

You can report fraud or cyber crime using the online reporting service any time of the day or night; the service enables you to both report a fraud and find help and support. Report fraud or cyber crime to Action Fraud any time of the day or night using their on-line reporting. Reporting online is quick and easy. The tool will guide you through simple questions to identify what has happened and our advisors are available twenty four hours to give you help and advice if you need it.

When reporting online you will be given the option to register, login to an existing account or continue as a guest. By registering you will be able to:

  • Save and resume a partially completed report
  • Track progress of your report
  •  Add information to your report
  • Call us to discuss your report
  • Receive an update by email

If you continue as a guest you will only be able to receive updates by email or post. You can also report by calling 0300 123 2040 Monday to Friday 8am - 8pm. If you are calling from abroad please call +44 300 123 2040 or on https://reporting.actionfraud.police.uk/login

References

Comparitech       Gov.UK       Action Fraud             Techmonitor

TechMonitor:       Serocu        Bedfordshire Police   SMF

ISC2       Sophos       Cyber Edge    Secure List       Comparitch

DLA Piper     IBM       Kaspersky      AtlasVPN        IPSOS

CW Jobs       City of London Police      AAG

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