Survey says UK cyber crime on the rise

An increasing number of threats from cyber hacking groups, government retaliations and terrorists has resulted in a fearful public with regards to losses and attacks, shows research commissioned by GFI Software.

GFI Software published the results of a survey that studied the social and business effects of hacking issues, revealing the public’s concerns regarding the rising business and personal risks of cyber crime and the increased probability that cyber criminality will lead to real-world retaliation. In light of recent attacks on such household brands as Netflix and Sony, the results of the survey show that the public is worried more and more about the effects of cyber crime at home and at work.

The survey revealed that 47% of those who responded have been affected by cyber crime within the past 12 months. The most common crime was credit card fraud, affecting 20% of survey respondents in the past year. The second most common crime was social media hacking, with 16.5% having had one or more accounts breached.

Opinion Matters conducted the independent survey on behalf of GFI Software, querying 1,008 adults representing firms with 5,000 staff or fewer who use computers or mobile devices.

One good thing to see from the survey is the fact that the UK workforce is clearly being made aware of the current situation, coming to terms with the prevalence of cyber crime. It is especially important, however, that company bosses are more vigilant than ever of it, so that they make an effort to offer cyber security jobs to trained professionals and keep their data secure.