New research on trends and characteristics of cybercrime in NSW by the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research BOCSAR shows a significant 42 per-cent increase in cybercrime over the three years to June 2022 resulting in losses of more than $400 million.

The report Trends and Characteristics of Cybercrime in NSW extracted data from the ReportCyber Application Platform (RCAP), a national cybercrime reporting system operated by the Australian Cyber Security Centre, separating cybercrime into five offence categories, cyber-enabled fraud, identity theft, cyber-enabled abuse, online image abuse (OIA), and device.

Over the three years to June 2022, there were 39,494 reports of cybercrime where the victim resided in NSW, and more than $404 million reported lost.

Cybercrime reports increased by 42 per-cent, with all cyber offence categories increasing except cyber abuse.

Increases in cyber enabled fraud and identity crime, spurred a corresponding increase in reported cybercrime-related financial losses by individuals.

Most victims were individuals 89 per-cent, male 53 per-cent and over 25 years of age 87 per-cent; however, differences in victim type were observed within offence categories.

Device offences (malware and ransomware) had the largest increase, with reports increasing by 117 per-cent.

Cyber-fraud increased by 95 per-cent and identity crime increased by 35 per-cent – these were the most common cyber offences, accounting for 79 per-cent of all reports.

While a high proportion of victims have evidence about the incident 94 per-cent, the majority did not know their perpetrator and therefore few reports included suspect details 28 per-cent.

The majority 71 per-cent of reports were closed by police in RCAP with no further investigation undertaken.

Reports were however more likely to be referred to police when the incident involved a victim aged 17 years or younger, the suspect was known to the victim, money was lost, or an OIA offence was indicated.

Executive Director of BOCSAR, Jackie Fitzgerald, said to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the prevalence and nature of cybercrime we need to integrate disparate reporting systems.

“Cyber-offending is arguably our most significant emerging crime problem,” she said.

“However, our understanding of this offence is seriously hampered, firstly, by people not coming forward, and, secondly, when they do, by the multiple, competing channels available to people to report the offence”.

The report concluded there are clear benefits in ongoing public reporting of cybercrime trends both at the national level and separately for individual states and territories, which could be enabled by integrating reporting systems and enhancing police data.