HMRC foils £103m of cyber fraud in 2014-15

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) thwarted more than £100 million of cybercrime in the 2014-15 financial year that could have negatively impacted on the Treasury’s coffers, according to the government’s UK Cyber Security Strategy annual report.

Since cybercrime was identified as one of the biggest threats to the UK economy, the Government has invested £860m since 2011 in a National Cyber Security programme.

Due to the significant investment, HMRC took down almost 1,000 fraudulent websites in 2012 alone. But that figure has increased ten-fold to 11,000 in 2015.

The latest government report reveals that HMRC were given the capacity to establish a dedicated cyber security team in 2012 that has “assisted in the prevention of frauds totalling more than £103m in 2014-15”.

Other recent achievements cited by paymaster general, Matthew Hancock include a “significant enhancement” of national capabilities and technologies to defend the UK against those who would do us harm and the introduction of a national method to incident response and secure data sharing on cyber threats.

Hancock also believes that government digital services are “more secure than ever” given that cyber security is now built in by design, with robust action taken against attempts at online fraud.

Mr Hancock added that 2016 will see the launch of the UK’s second National Cyber Security Strategy, designed to outline the strategy and vision of online fraud prevention for the next five years.

“While we know the scale of the task ahead, we also know we are building on a good platform,” said Hancock.

“This report highlights the current Programme’s achievements over the past year and the wider impact of the programme since its inception.

“We should be proud of the foundations we have jointly laid through our first National Cyber Security Programme. They have positioned us well for challenges ahead.”

Date published 20 Apr 2016 | Last updated 20 Apr 2016