Cyber scams on firms Increase by 31% during pandemic

UK businesses have lost more than £6.2 million to cyber scams in the past 12 months with nearly a third increase in cases during the peak of the pandemic, new research shows.

From May to June this year, reported cyber scam cases on businesses increased by 31%.

Cyber security company Nexor examined police data which revealed how 3,445 U.K. businesses fell victim to cyber scams during the period September 2019 to September 2020. Of those cases, more than half (1,740) were reported since lockdown was enforced.

Top of the list of the most common type of attack was hacking through email or social media, which equated to 53% of attacks over the year, with a loss of £2.9 million. The second most common attack was hacking of computer servers over the 12 month period.

Today’s Family Lawyer recently reported at the end of last month a two-fold rise in scam alerts in the legal industry since the start of the year. Law firms and individual practitioners across all sectors of the legal profession have been bombarded with scams over the last few months while attempting to recover from the pandemic – with Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) reporting on a spike of scam alerts.

Worringly, during the three-month period of July to September 2020, 50% of the year’s scam alerts were sent during this time frame. 20% of these year to date figures, were sent in the month of September alone – making it clear that scammers are not slowing down any time soon and law firms and family practitioners should be watching out for signs of potential scammers and put in measures to mitigate the risk of fraud.