Surprise, surprise: fraud and cyber attack volumes both rising

Numbers of both fraud and cyber attacks are increasing, according to Kroll’s tenth annual Global Fraud and Risk Report. 84 per cent of the 540 senior executives surveyed for the report said their company had been affected by at least one instance of fraud in the previous 12 months, up from 82 per cent in 2016 and only 61 per cent in 2012. 86 per cent of companies had also experienced a cyber incident, information/data theft or another form of cyber attack during the previous year, up from 85 per cent in 2016.

Technology, media and telecommunications businesses were among the sectors most severely affected. More than nine out of ten (92 per cent) of companies in this sector reported at least one cyber incident and 86 per cent were affected by fraud. More than one in three respondents (35 per cent) in these sectors said their company had lost information to a cyber attack, up from 30 per cent the previous year. 43 per cent had been hit by an email-based phishing attack and 41 per cent by malware.

Respondents also reported reputational and financial damage as a result of these incidents: one in five (21 per cent) of all the companies surveyed reported losses equal to seven per cent or more of company revenues.

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