UK Retailers Hit by £100m Cyber Fraud Bill
Online fraud now accounts for over half of all fraud incidents in the UK retail sector as existing deterrents prove ineffective, according to new stats from the British Retail Consortium (BRC).
The BRC’s 2016 Retail Crime Survey revealed that 53% of all fraud in the industry comes from cyber, amounting to estimated losses of £100 million.
The survey also broke out separate stats for cybercrime, including hacking and data breaches, which it said accounted for 5% of the total direct cost of crime to retail businesses – or around £36m.
Hackers are operating from outside the UK with impunity, accessing IT systems remotely, but the report also pointed to an uptick in insider threats for nearly a third (29%) of members.