Scottish Daily Mail

42m Britons hacked in cyber raids

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ThE number of Britons whose financial data was hacked last year rose by a staggering 1,800pc.

More than 42m people in the UK were affected by data breaches – up from 2.2m the previous year.

The huge rise comes as criminal gangs have ramped up their use of large-scale ‘ransomware’ attacks. These use malicious software that is designed to block a computer unless cash is paid.

Ransomware attacks potentiall­y involve huge amount of data being copied. Richard Breavingto­n, a partner at internatio­nal law firms Reynolds Porter Chamberlai­n (RPC), which published the analysis, said such attacks have become very ‘lucrative’ for cyber-criminals.

The 42m figure may include individual­s whose details were stolen in multiple separate attacks, RPC said.

Businesses, who have been urged to double down on efforts to protect the storage of personal data of customers and employees, should invest in robust iT security software, RPC said.

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