Hacking crimes risen by half in the last year across the West Midlands - via The Briti

The number of hacking crimes has risen by just over 50% as the number of complaints made to West Midlands Police Climb. 

Hacking incidents have risen by almost 20% in the last year across the West Midlands. There were 277 reports of hacking in the year of 2016/17 but this number has risen in 2017/18 to 329 reports. 

The number of these incidents that have been classified as a crime has risen from 40 to 61 in the last year. 

The number of cyber-crimes has been on the rise dramatically both nationally and internationally in the last few years leading The World Economic Forum to name cyber-crime amongst the Top 3 in the list of risks that world will face this year.

Biggest Hacking Convictions and Complaints from 2017/18 April 2018 – Samir Desai of Grange Drive in Sutton Coldfield was convicted of hacking his ex-employer’s systems between February and April 2017. 

He stopped when he was arrested by the Regional Cyber Crimes unit of West Midlands Police and pleaded guilty in court to hacking and had the intent to commit more crimes. 

Also, MP for Birmingham Yardley, Jess Phillips tweeted about her experience with hackers regularly trying to break into her accounts claiming that ‘it happens all the time.’ She also suffered a Cyber Attack in 2017 during the election. 

The attack was designed to prevent her from regaining access to her account. 

January 2018 – Hacker, Alex Bessel was convicted at Birmingham Crown Court for hacking offences and money laundering. 

West Midlands Police raided his home and found over 750 names and passwords from infected computers and made over £50,000 from selling malware products.

 He was arrested after being under investigation from the WMP Regional Cyber Crimes Unit and admitted to 9 charges. 

May 2017 – Cyber-attacks on the NHS and some of the country’s top universities last year went on for months with the WannaCry ransomware virus infecting more than 230,000 computers worldwide. 

Local universities such as Birmingham City University issued warnings to it’s students about the crimes and warned them not to open any suspicious content sent to their student email accounts. 

The NHS was not prepared for such an attack but they later said that it ‘could have been prevented.’  How to prevent being hacked 

1. Run up-to-date, quality security software – This will help prevent ransomware from being downloaded onto your device and prevent any unauthorised logins to your accounts. There are many free options out there such as Windows Defender on your PC. 

2. Run regularly scheduled scans with your anti-virus software – Regularly scanning your device for viruses will ensure that you catch the virus before it has a chance to cause drastic damage or gain access into important personal information and accounts so that you can remove it. Most anti-virus software can run regular scans in the background and notify you when they’re done with the results. 

3. Check your sources – If you receive an email that seems suspicious or an email from a bank etc. always make sure that you check the source. Hover the mouse over the URL/email address and make sure that it is coming from a trusted source. If it seems untrustworthy then do not open any links or download any attachments. If an email like this claim to be from a bank or government body then this should be reported to the body they are claiming to be so they can warn others of the scam. 

4. Avoid running programs and downloading files from an untrustworthy source – Running programs and downloading files from these sources can automatically download a virus onto your device without you knowing about it.  

5. Keep your personal information safe – Don’t save passwords and always log out when using a shared computer and avoid posting personal account information anywhere online. 

6. Back up your files – Keep your files backed up offline on a USB, this will ensure that you have all of your files if you are ever the victim of a cyber-attack and your computer is wiped or you can no longer gain access to your online files.  

What can the police do? West Midlands Police said: “Each hacking case is unique so each one will be dealt with differently depending on the circumstances. If your social media account has been hacked then we advise that you contact the company so they can investigate the issue further. 

"If you have been a victim of cyber fraud you can contact the Action Fraud team on 0300 123 2040 but if you feel personally vulnerable due to the crime you can report it to use using the non-emergency number 101.”