WIREDGOV

A Home Office report estimates the economic and social costs of crimes in the UK.

Last week the Office for National Statistics published estimates from the Crime Survey for England and Wales, which revealed that people are more likely to be a victim of cyber crime & fraud than any other crime.

Yesterday the Home Office published analysis on the economic and social costs of crime, based on crime survey data from 2015/16. The Home Office report estimates the total costs of crime in England and Wales in 2015/16 to be approximately £50bn for crimes against individuals. The first table in the report breaks down the unit costs of crimes by cost category, and estimates that fraud and cyber crime in 2015/16 cost £5.8bn (Fraud: £4.7bn, Cyber Crime £1.1bn).

These are certainly alarming figures, and help make the case for appropriate investment in the skills and tools law enforcement agencies need to tackle this changing threat. But perhaps more interesting is what these estimates leave out: the analysis does not include the costs of cyber crime and fraud against businesses “due to the limited availability of data.”

It is currently impossible to gauge precisely the scale of cyber crime and fraud against UK businesses, but the National Cyber Security Centre’s report The cyber threat to UK business makes clear that the threat is significant and growing. And so the true cost of fraud & cyber crime to the country is likely much higher than the figures estimate.