Internet related crimes are so common these days that at least one takes place every ten minutes according to the law enforcement reports in the United Kingdom.
While government officials around the world continue to fight these cyber criminals, their reach can only go so far. The UK has announced that they have experienced an average of 150 incidences occurring in their country daily over the past year.
Online crimes include a vast array of different types: phishing, ransomware attacks, indecent sexual online publications, sexual abuse material of both adults and children, harassment, cyber stalking and even blackmail.
According to a recent report on cyber crime frequency in the United Kingdom, during a 12 month span between July 2016 and June of this year, 55,000 internet related crimes have been reported.
Harassment incidences and blackmail offenses make up the majority of those reported crimes with a whopping 33,148. 2,081 of those crimes were blackmail, 6,327 were offenses connect to sex crimes involving children, and 8,012 offenses were due to indecent sexual publications.
UK’s Office for National Statistics have identified the trend for these crimes and have announced the frequency is expected to rise if something doesn’t change. Law enforcement faces numerous challenges in regard to catching the criminals who commit these cyber crimes due to anonymity services.
The popular anonymous internet browsing software Tor is one of the major problems they face but certainly not the only one. VPN (Virtual Private Network) services are a big part of the challenges being faced because they also allow users to hide their identity online even more. Authorities continue to develop new ways to combat cyber crime but if they don’t find a way to do more, cyber crime offenses will likely become out of control.