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Cyber crime cost businesses in the West Midlands in excess of £400K in the last 15 months

The NFIB Fraud and Cyber Crime Dashboard reported that from 1st January 2020 – 1st April 2021, there were 232 reports of cyber dependent crime on organisations and this totaled in losses of £404.1K.


These cyber dependent crimes included Hacking – social media and email, Computer virus/malware/software, Hacking – server, Hacking -extortion, and denial of service attacks.


Between 1st January and 31st March 2021, 27 organisations reported being the victim of cyber-dependent offences in the West Midlands region.


With cybercrime continuing to be massively underreported across the region, it’s likely that the real figure is much higher and many of the ones that were reported did not include details of financial losses and did not account for the potential lost business, IT resourcing to deal with incidents and the costs of recovery.


The organisational sector types that were the victims of offences were:

· Education (19%)

· Construction (11%)

· Manufacture (7%)

· Retail (7%)

· Financial (7%)

· Critical Infrastructure (7%)

· Legal (4%)

· Media (4%)

· Community (4%)

· Insurance (4

· IT (4%)

· Charity (4%)

· Food (4%)

· Healthcare (4%)

· Unknown (11%)


The cyber-dependent offence types reported by victims between 1st Jan –31st March were:

· Hacking (41%)

· Ransomware (22%)

· DDoS (22%)

· Zero-day Exploit (11%)

· Unknown (4%)


Ransomware offences reported in this period featured the use a methodology called double extortion. This is where the hackers threaten the publication of the stolen data should the victim not pay the ransom fee.


Phishing is also on the rise, with cyber criminals actively targeting business’s cloud services due to how critical they have been throughout the coronavirus pandemic with moves to agile working.


Many of the Phishing offences reported across the region have involved criminals gaining unauthorised access to accounts, including email accounts to harvest confidential information to then be shared online for a fee.


How can The Cyber Resilience Centre for the West Midlands help my business from the threat of cyber crime?


The West Midlands Cyber Resilience Centre (WMCRC) is part of a network of centres being established across the country to provide businesses and organisations, with an affordable way to access cyber security services and consultancy to help improve cyber resilience.


The WMCRC offers a range a membership options depending on what level of support businesses in West Midlands, Worcestershire, Staffordshire, Herefordshire, and Warwickshire need.


Businesses in the West Midlands can sign up for a free Core Membership online and receive a welcome pack full of practical resources and tools that will help you identify your risks and vulnerabilities and the steps you can take to increase your levels of protection. Through your membership, you will also get regular updates on new threats, designed to help you stay safer.


If you are an SME, microbusiness or sole trader in the West Midlands, we are here to help you. We are currently offering 10% of paid memberships or off of one of the student cyber services we have available when you sign up to become a core member.


Find out more at www.wmcrc.co.uk/membership and quote wmcrc10 when asked.


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The contents of this website are provided for general information only and are not intended to replace specific professional advice relevant to your situation. The intention of The Cyber Resilience Centre for the West Midlands is to encourage cyber resilience by raising issues and disseminating information on the experiences and initiatives of others.  Articles on the website cannot by their nature be comprehensive and may not reflect most recent legislation, practice, or application to your circumstances. The Cyber Resilience Centre for the West Midlands provides affordable services and Trusted Partners if you need specific support. For specific questions please contact us.

 

The Cyber Resilience Centre for the West Midlands does not accept any responsibility for any loss which may arise from reliance on information or materials published on this document. The Cyber Resilience Centre for the West Midlands is not responsible for the content of external internet sites that link to this site or which are linked from it.

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