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An analysis of NSW cyber crime has revealed that levels are growing steadily in line with Commonwealth levels.
The NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research released a report titled Trends in and characteristics of cybercrime in NSW, which examined the increases in cyber crime and the police response to it in the state, based on data from the ReportCyber Application platform (RCAP).
In NSW alone, there were 39,494 reports of cyber crime between 1 July 2019 and 30 June 2022, which were divided into five categories: cyber-enabled fraud, identity theft, cyber-enabled abuse, online image abuse (OIA), and device.
Of the reports, cyber-enabled fraud and identity theft made up 79 per cent. Fourteen per cent was made up of cyber abuse cases. The last 6 per cent was made up of an equal split of device and OIA.
According to the bureau, cyber crime reports increased 42 per cent over the period, from 11,389 between July 2019 and June 2020 to 16,130 between July 2021 and June 2022.
Fraud and identity theft attacks once again made up the majority of the growth, accounting for 5,295 incidents. Fraud alone increased by 95 per cent, with 3,917 incidents.
Most of the victims reported were individuals, at 89 per cent, with males making up the majority at 53 per cent.
Losses have also increased dramatically, with the amount individuals are paying increasing from $1,848,237 in July 2019 to $24,866,537.
Overall, reported losses exceeded $404 million.
A key finding of the RCAP is the number of reports that were referred to and investigated successfully by police.
According to the bureau report, fraud and image abuse were the most likely incidents to be referred to police, with 44.2 per cent of all cases being fraud and 41.3 per cent being online image abuse.
Online image abuse and cyber abuse cases were reported to police the quickest, with over half of both reported to RCAP and then reported to police for investigation within half a day.
However, other forms of cyber crime took longer, with the median time taken to report to police being eight days for device, nine for fraud, and 18 for identity cases.
Of those cases referred to police, 71 per cent were closed by police with no further investigation required.
The bureau concluded that while this only provides a snapshot of state cyber crime and police response, the levels of increasing cyber crime reflect the Commonwealth’s. In addition, the report said that “integrating reporting systems and enhancing police data” could lead to increased benefits in terms of victim awareness, reporting methods and publishing of crime statistics at both a state and federal level.
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