Security News > 2020 > July > Computer misuse crimes down 9% on last year in England and Wales, says Office of National Statistics
Computer misuse crimes across England and Wales have declined over the past year - with credential theft attacks remaining more or less flat in the pre-COVID reporting period.
The Crime Survey of England and Wales recorded a total of 876,000 incidents of computer misuse affecting 743,000 adults across the UK over the past year, a figure that was down by 9 per cent on 2019's total of 966,000 incidents.
A further 516,000 computer misuse reports, making up the rest of the year's total, concerned "Unauthorised access to personal information".
George Glass, head of threat intel at infosec biz Redscan, opined that these exclusions made the survey of limited use, saying in a statement: "Despite huge reported increases in hacking and malware incidents, I still think this latest Crime in England and Wales report paints an inaccurate picture of computer misuse and online fraud cases in the UK.".
The bundling of fraud together with computer misuse offences shows how government tends to view "Hacking" as an economic matter.