Home Office omits Cyber crime statistics in latest report

Ross Brewer, vice president and managing director for international markets, LogRhythm, has made the following comments:

“There are few things in life we can be absolutely sure of, but one of them is the fact that the number of cyber attacks aimed at UK businesses is on the rise. Sadly, this is a fact that has been completely overlooked in the Home Office’s report. Savvy criminals have realised that stealing cash from an organisation’s safe is neither as lucrative nor effective as taking the information to access online bank accounts, so there is little point in talking up the reduction in the number of burglaries or shoplifting incidents, when hackers are routinely compromising corporate networks.

“As hackers develop new and more sophisticated techniques, and cyber attacks become increasingly regular, every single organisation should be aware of the threat, in order to adequately defend themselves. Part of the problem is the fact that businesses are often unaware of the fact that they are being breached, or realise too far down the line, and therefore fail to report the attack. This is largely due to the fact that many only have reactive security solutions in place, such as firewalls, but these tools no longer provide enough insight or protection to deal with the threats that are faced today. In short, visibility and proactive monitoring have become the new burglar alarm.

“If more organisations were able to consistently identify and report on breaches, then perhaps the Home Office will see that, in fact, crime against businesses has not fallen – just changed in nature. Without including cyber crime in these reports, the problem is simply being perpetuated and we may as well hang-up our defence boots now.”

* Home Office's Report