Public sector survey reveals threat of cyber and economic crime

Economic crime affected nearly 1/2 government and public sector organisations until now year.

According to a report by PwC, one in four of the 180 organisations polled worldwide (27 of which have been inside the UK) expected to be afflicted by cyber crime inside the coming year, with 46 per cent of presidency and public sector organisations already having experienced a number of incidents of financial crime long ago 365 days.

The most well-liked forms of fraud â€" asset misappropriation; accounting fraud; and bribery and corruption â€" are at the increase, while cyber crime has also risen sharply. Asset misappropriation is the commonest sort of fraud, suffered by 75 per cent of respondents.

Around 14 per cent said they were a victim of a few type of cyber crime, while 28 per cent of respondents thought  they're prone to suffer a cyber crime attack within the next one year; greater than 40 per cent perceived the danger of cyber crime to be exacerbating.

Andrew Miller, PwC's head of data security in government, said: “Damage to an organisation's reputation and the capability lack of data are high at the public sector's agenda relating to the impact of cyber attacks. Here is hardly surprising given recent high-profile cases of knowledge security breaches.

“Therefore, it will be significant that organisations continue to guarantee they're investing in cyber-crime-monitoring capabilities and align their management structures to take timely actions if a cyber incident occurs.”

Although greater than 1/2 public sector organisations said they've in-house capabilities to detect cyber crime, most wouldn't have the resources to research it and are reliant on external forensic technology investigators. This week a newspaper story within the US revealed that networks at a university in San Francisco were infested with viruses for greater than a decade, with the CTO blaming a scarcity of security awareness among directors and staff.