It’s been a bad week for UK financial services.
A string of hacks have targeted companies from credit-card companies to large international banks, including Visa and Mastercard, the largest companies in the world, which have all reported some of the data stolen.
A new report by the UK’s Office for National Statistics has also shown that the number of cyber-attacks on UK businesses has doubled in the last 12 months.
The number of reported cyber-security incidents in the UK increased by nearly 40 per cent to 4,054 in the 12 months to March 2018, compared to the previous 12 months, and the total number of incidents in 2016 was 1,000,000.
In the last year, a total of 2,903 financial firms were targeted.
There has been a “sharp rise” in cyber-attack incidents in recent months, with banks and payment processors seeing the biggest increases, the report found.
The financial industry is the third-largest source of fraud in the country after the health and education sectors.
In addition to a sharp increase in cyber attacks, a number of new companies have also come to the fore.
In April, there were seven cyber-defence firms in the Top 10, up from three in April 2017.
The rise in cyber crime is likely to come as a surprise to the UK, where cybercrime was a concern before Brexit, said Martin Gorman, CEO of Cybersecurity For London, an industry body.
“They were at the forefront of this,” Mr Gorman told the BBC.
“It was just a matter of time before it happened.”
“The security of the industry is of paramount importance to everyone in the industry.
I think it’s a good time to take stock of how vulnerable our industry is, and that it is being breached,” he added.
It’s also worth pointing out that the report only looks at the UK economy, rather than the whole world.
It is only a snapshot of financial services industry, and is not a comprehensive look at the financial industry worldwide.
There are around 4.2 million financial institutions in the United States alone.
But Mr Gror said that while there are many other financial services firms in Britain, it is the financial services sector that has been hit the hardest.
“I think the biggest issue with the financial sector is that it’s not a sector that’s being targeted by the cyber-criminals,” he said.
“The majority of financial institutions are operating as they always have, and there’s a lot of risk-taking, which is a good thing.”
There has also been a rise in the number, and frequency, of cyberattacks against UK companies.
This is partly due to the growing awareness of cybercrime in the financial sphere, with the number reported breaches increasing by a further 30 per cent between March and April 2018, according to the OLS.
The total number reported cyberattacks in the past 12 months increased by more than 100 per cent, from 778 in the previous year to 1,749.
“In the last two years we’ve seen a huge increase in incidents,” said Mr Gorm.
“We’ve seen breaches in the payment sector.
We’ve seen cyber-crime in financial services and the banking sector.
And it’s all increasing.”
The report also looked at the number and frequency of attacks that affected financial institutions, such as data breaches and identity theft.
It found that a majority of the attacks were at financial institutions or the companies that handle them, but a further 25 per cent were at retail financial services, a sector which was previously overlooked by cyber-crackers.
The report found that the average amount of data stolen was just over $600 per breach.
“This is really shocking,” said Matthew Smith, CEO at cybersecurity firm Symantec.
“When it comes to cyber-intrusion in the sector, the financial and retail sector is really at the front of the line.”
Cybercriminals are targeting financial institutions.
In order to protect their identity and steal funds, they’re doing it at the most vulnerable times.
Cyber-attacks are now targeting a range of other industries, including energy, retail, health, education, transport and the health sector. “
As the financial institutions have become the target of cybercriminals, the retail sector has been the target too.”
Cyber-attacks are now targeting a range of other industries, including energy, retail, health, education, transport and the health sector.
The OLS found that energy was the most targeted industry, with 1,936 breaches reported in the three months to April 2018.
Retail was the second-most targeted sector, with just over 600 breaches.
It also found that there were more than 8,000 breaches at retail companies, up slightly from 6,068 in the same period last year.
The banking sector, however, has suffered a big hit.
“Cyber-crime targeting the banking industry is likely the most significant category of financial sector breaches, with financial institutions the most affected
