Cyber crime rates soaring in Britain

London, Oct 30: An online indentity firms reports that Britain witnessed soaring cyber crime rates in 2007. The report has shown that cyber crime in the UK rose by more than 9 percent in 2007. According to Tom Ilube, chief executive, 'Garlick', majority of the crimes committed online were in relation to fraud and abusive or threatening emails leaving more than two million people prone to online harassment.

Though online financial fraud took a huge leap in 2007 with a 20 per cent rise, cases of online identity theft had gone down by 8 per cent followed by online sexual offences that fell by 2 per cent. The study further revealed that the online crimes were being committed by professionals and one could expect an overall increase owing to the credit crunch that would led many people to perform illegal activities. "It's critical in this time of financial crisis that individuals are vigilant with their personal information, because as long as the credit crunch continues, we can expect to see a real growth in online financial fraud," BBC quoted Ilube as saying.

According to the Internet Crime Complaint Center 2007 annual report, US stood first in the list of countries responsible for perpetrating most cyber crimes, followed by Britain.

Where Cybercrime Comes From:

United States - 63.2 per cent

United Kingdom - 15.3 per cent

Nigeria - 5.7 per cent

Canada - 5.6 per cent

Romania - 1.5 per cent

ANI