According to Computer Weekly “UK Finance fraud data taken from across the banking sector found a 61% increase in remote banking and card fraud, while Action Fraud reported that it saw a 53% increase in offences involving the hacking of email or social media accounts and a 40% rise in offences booked as “computer viruses and malware”.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has reported that the increase in remote banking fraud has risen. The use of online services by consumers during periods of lockdown, did a 27% increase in incidents of retail and online auction fraud. The increase of computer misuse offences will reflect and coincide with the rise in data breaches.

Only a fraction of fraud and cyber crime offences occurring in the UK are being reported to the authorities, according to estimates compiled by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in its new telephone-operated Crime survey for England and Wales (TCSEW).

Trans Union, a business that protects and collates credit scores, credit reports and credit alerts all on the one platform has a designated fraud department. Josh Gunnell, TransUnion head of fraud and identity pre-sales for the UK, said the statistics laid bear the scale of the challenge the nation faces as cyber criminals take advantage of the digitisation of society. He said these increases were likely to continue, especially as the full impact of repeated national lockdowns becomes clearer.

Angelus Law estimates that the National Lockdown effects will heighten data breaches in fruition once the working from home stage begins to phase out; which is when breaches will become apparent throughout the UK. The digital world has been an area that the whole world has relied on during the pandemic. We anticipate the proper security measures required to ensure breaches do not occur, may have fallen and become more of a relaxed approach with the rush to try and maintain a WFH environment for most.

The pandemic has been a free for all for cyber criminals. Staff working from home would have given them an advantage to gain access to those systems that may not have been secured to the highest of standard and therefore easily accessible. There has been occasions where data has been held ransom for some time in secret, then made public months after. Angelus Law anticipates repercussions similar to this could occur in the future when cyber criminals think the ‘time is right’ to reveal their acts and demand monetary values to release the data witheld.

“This is echoed by TransUnion’s own research tracking the impact of Covid-19 in the UK, which showed that, at the end of 2020, 30% of respondents had been targeted in a digital fraud attempt related to the pandemic, with 7% of those falling victim to the scams,” said Gunnell.

“Fraudsters adapt quickly – as we’ve seen recently with the rise in investment scams circulating on Instagram and other social media channels – and businesses need to be equally agile, continually reviewing and adapting their fraud prevention strategies and tools.

“Even some of the strategies to prevent fraud can themselves become vectors of fraud, such as the ‘confirmation of payee’ scheme. This is in place to better protect consumers, but has given rise to a spike in phishing texts telling the target that a new payee has been set up and directing them to click a link for details. The threats evolve continually and in the current environment, with people banking and shopping almost exclusively online, these risks are greater than ever.”

If you have been a victim of a data breach and has been notified. Please get in touch with us so we can assist you pursue a data breach claim.