Cyber crimes spike in England and Wales, says ONS

For the first time the England the Office for National Statistics (ONS) includes data related hacking and fraud, and findings are shocking.

Cyber criminal activities in England and Wales have shown a spike in the last twelve months, Cyber frauds and computer misuse offences are most common crimes of this worrisome trend.

According to the report “Crime in England and Wales: year ending Sept 2016” published by the UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) there were 6.2 million reported incidents of crime in the 12 months to September 2016 in England and Wales.

The ONS crime report is an annual analysis of the criminal phenomena and has been produced every year for the past 35 years. Data belonging Scotland and Northern Ireland are not included because the two countries have separate judicial and policing regime.

“Headline figures from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) produced on a consistent basis showed an estimated 6.2 million incidents of crime in the survey year ending September 2016; no statistically significant change compared with the previous year’s survey.” states the report.

“Following an extension of the coverage of the survey, Experimental Statistics showed there were 3.6 million fraud and 2.0 million computer misuse offences for the first full year in which such questions have been included in the CSEW.”

This overall figure is unchanged compared with the previous 12 months, except for the weight of the cyber criminal activities.

Experts noticed that adding  3.6 million cases of fraud and 2 million computer misuse offences to 6.2 million figure of crime, the number of reported incidents reached 11.8 million. This data represent a 90 per cent surge in criminal activities.

The most important consideration to do reading the report is the inclusion of computer crime and fraud, this means that the awareness of cyber threats is increasing.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs – ONS Report, Crimes)