Businesses and law enforcers are losing the battle against cyber criminals, according to a new warning by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA).
In the past year, crime statistics reveal there were 2.46 million ‘cyber incidents’, including 700,000 frauds.
The NCA’s annual cybercrime evaluation, found a key risk to the UK comes from international gangs – with the biggest threat coming from a few hundred criminals, who target UK businesses to commit highly profitable malware-facilitated fraud. Some are so sophisticated that they run call centres and employ translators.
The government has already pledged to spend £1.9billion on cyber-defences during the next five years.
The NCA said the “accelerating pace of technology and criminal cyber-capability development” is overtaking the UK’s collective response to cybercrime.
“This ‘cyber arms race’ is likely to be an enduring challenge, and an effective response requires collaborative action from government, law enforcement, industry regulators and, critically, business leaders,” the report added.
Carey Jacobs, a partner at Palmers, said: “Cybercrime is a global issue that affects all businesses.
“Hearing ever more frequent stories of a number of local businesses falling victim to cyber-crime of some kind, it seems to us at Palmers to be vital to help our clients and the wider business community to be prepared for a cyber-attack. In order to assist in training and education in the prevention of these attacks, we are hosting a series of free interactive business education events.
“The focus of these events will be to provide decision makers with a greater understanding of the risks of cybercrime to their businesses and to provide an introduction to the necessary training and required investment in IT, insurance and personnel systems so that employers can start to reduce those risks.”
The business education event on 15th September 2016 is hosted in conjunction with Thurrock Council. On Thursday 13th October, Palmers will be holding a similar event, in partnership with Southend-on-Sea Borough Council and on Wednesday 23rd November, Basildon Council will be Palmers co-hosts.
Our panel will include experts from our own commercial team, and:
- The City of London Police
- Barclays
- Cyber Strategies Limited
Confirmation of the venues and a full line-up of speakers will be announced nearer to the date of these events.
If you are in business, you cannot afford to miss these important updates, which will provide a real insight into how cybercrime could be devastating to your business. Both events promise to deliver advice on practical, protective and preventative measures to reduce that risk and help you to cope if the worst should happen. To reserve your place at either event, please click here or contact us.