More than a quarter of people living in London have been victim to cybercrime, which includes having their identity, money or bank detail stolen, according to a new research.
Londoners are the most likely to have been victims of cybercrime, with as many as 27 per cent saying they’ve been affected, according to a research from Intelligent Environments, a financial technology company.
Norwich residents are the second most likely to suffer from an attack with 23 per cent, followed by Birmingham, Bristol and Manchester with 21 per cent of the population having been a victim of cybercrime.
Banks have a clear role to play in keeping people safe and educating their customers, research suggests.
Some 19 per cent of people in the UK said they have limited understanding of how to stay safe online, but nearly 50 per cent are concerned their identity and bank details will be stolen.
David Webber, Managing Director of Intelligent Environments, said recent high profile hacking attacks such as Ashley Maddison, Bitdefender and TalkTalk have put the issues at the top of people’s mind.
“People are more on edge these days, and with good reason. Of course, banking data is always going to be a primary concern as it’s particularly attractive to hackers. We’re therefore calling on banks to play a more active role in educating customers on how best to keep themselves and their financial information safe while they’re online,” Webber said.
Since 2013, there has been a significant increase in the number of consumers taking action following a security breach, according to another survey by Deloitte. More than 75 per of respondents would conduct a security review after a cyber-attack, up from 52 per cent in 2013 or reduce their online activity altogether.
Ben Perkins, head of consumer business research at Deloitte, said:
“Consumers have been very clear in their message to businesses and third party organisations: data security is paramount.
“At the same time, consumers now have greater awareness of cyber-crime and internet fraud and are, perhaps understandably, more distrustful of companies looking after their data."
