With cybercrime continuing to be massively underreported across the region, it’s likely that the real figure is much higher and many of the ones that were reported did not include details of financial losses and did not account for the potential lost business, IT resourcing to deal with incidents and the costs of recovery.

 

The organisational sector types that were the victims of offences were:

· Education (19%)

· Construction (11%)

· Manufacture (7%)

· Retail (7%)

· Financial (7%)

· Critical Infrastructure (7%)

· Legal (4%)

· Media (4%)

· Community (4%)

· Insurance (4

· IT (4%)

· Charity (4%)

· Food (4%)

· Healthcare (4%)

· Unknown (11%)

 

The cyber-dependent offence types reported by victims between 1st Jan –31st March were:

· Hacking (41%)

· Ransomware (22%)

· DDoS (22%)

· Zero-day Exploit (11%)

· Unknown (4%)

 

Ransomware offences reported in this period featured the use a methodology called double extortion. This is where the hackers threaten the publication of the stolen data should the victim not pay the ransom fee.

 

Phishing is also on the rise, with cyber criminals actively targeting business’s cloud services due to how critical they have been throughout the coronavirus pandemic with moves to agile working.

 

Many of the Phishing offences reported across the region have involved criminals gaining unauthorised access to accounts, including email accounts to harvest confidential information to then be shared online for a fee.

 

How can The Cyber Resilience Centre for the West Midlands help my business from the threat of cyber crime?

 

The West Midlands Cyber Resilience Centre (WMCRC) is part of a network of centres being established across the country to provide businesses and organisations, with an affordable way to access cyber security services and consultancy to help improve cyber resilience.

 

The WMCRC offers a range a membership options depending on what level of support businesses in West Midlands, Worcestershire, Staffordshire, Herefordshire, and Warwickshire need.

 

Businesses in the West Midlands can sign up for a free Core Membership online and receive a welcome pack full of practical resources and tools that will help you identify your risks and vulnerabilities and the steps you can take to increase your levels of protection. Through your membership, you will also get regular updates on new threats, designed to help you stay safer.

 

If you are an SME, microbusiness or sole trader in the West Midlands, we are here to help you. We are currently offering 10% of paid memberships or off of one of the student cyber services we have available when you sign up to become a core member.

 

Find out more at www.wmcrc.co.uk/membership and quote wmcrc10 when asked.