The United Kingdom lost around £10.9 billion last year due to prevalent cyber crime in the country which accounts to an individual over the age of 16 losing around £210. However, victims of online crime must have lost an average of £523 each–this being more than the average weekly earnings figure for the UK which currently stands at £505.
The loss occurred in the country in online fraud during 12 months includes fraudulent phishing messages to extract the personal details of victims, so-called ransomware and the theft of dating through hacking.
National Fraud Intelligence Bureau and crime awareness group Get Safe Online (GSO) figures would have been higher if reported. The survey conducted by GSO found that 39% of victims did not report the cyber crime incident.
The survey which was conducted on Wednesday (October 18) to mark Get Safe Online day, also found that a quarter of the UK public has a limited understanding of the risks they face when going online and most of them have doubt on what constitutes an online crime.
The UK public and small businesses are being urged to start making every day safer. Organisation is calling on individuals to ask them to use different strong passwords and not rely on just a few easily remembered words for maintaining their online activities. They are also advised to update their operating systems and security software. It also advises tightening social media security to ensure only friends and family can view status updates.
People are also advised to backup important files and documents to hard drives or cloud storage services.
