Firms urged to report cyber crime

The scale of cyber crime is being underestimated as many businesses that fall victim are not reporting it for fear of damaging their reputation, the National Crime Agency (NCA) has warned.

Under-reporting of cyber crime is obscuring the understanding of its true scale and cost, with ransomware attacks – such as the one which caused disruption for major organisations including European bank BNP Paribas this week – becoming more common.

NCA deputy director general Matthew Horne said cyber attacks needed to be viewed more widely as a security or criminal threat rather than as an IT issue.

“Businesses just need to report it,” he said. “If they’re not being reported that puts us very much on the back foot.

“It needs to be viewed as a security and criminal act, not as an Itissue.”