Lloyd’s observes dramatic increase in UK cybercrime

Cybercrime is on the increase in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, and risk managers need to be better prepared to deal with cases of Internet-crime including Internet fraud, junk email or ‘spam’, viruses and hacking, according to Lloyds of London.
In 2004, credit card fraud over the Internet cost the United Kingdom 117 million (Cdn$264.5 million) and during the same period, 77% of medium to large businesses reported virus attacks costing 27.8 million (Cdn$62.8 million), Lloyds notes in a posting on its Web site. 2007 figures are expected to be the highest on record.
Lloyds noted the recent theft of a laptop from the home of a Nationwide Building Society employee in February put cybercrime at the top of the news agenda.
The Nationwide was fined close to 1 million (Cdn$2.2 million) by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) for the breach of security, amid fears that the confidential customer data contained in the machine could be misused, Lloyds noted.
Shaun Cooper, Network Risk Consultant at Aon, is quoted as saying on the Lloyds Web site that now, more than ever, companies have to be on the ball in order to combat the threat of cybercrime. Human error does play a part to a certain extent and certainly the biggest threat comes from within, even former employees can pose a security threat to a company, Cooper is quoted as saying. But there are also plenty of third party angles to consider.
Cooper goes on to note he has seen a dramatic rise in the purchase of cyber insurance. Nevertheless, he says, businesses are still catching up.
Businesses need to tackle day-to-day issues to avoid breaching data regulations, he says. They need to appreciate where they hold personal data and ask themselves some serious questions, such as are they processing this information correctly and managing it with sufficient care?