Surrey Police see highest financial losses to cyber crime in the South East

Storage Vault analysed data from the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau to find out which areas in the UK had been hit hardest by cybercrime.

Police forces throughout the UK dealt with 54,574 incidents of cybercrime between October 2023 and November 2024, with associated losses of £6 million.

England saw the lion’s share of reports, with English forces dealing with 50,004 of the total incidents, accounting for £5.2 million of the overall losses. Wales came second nationally with 1,765 reports and losses of £14.2k in total.

In the South East, Surrey Police saw the highest financial losses with £496.4k on 1,025 reports. Although Thames Valley Police saw the smallest financial cost, they received the most reports in the region with 2,202 incidents.

Regionally, Yorkshire and the Humber had the highest total losses with £1.9 million reported taken through cybercrime. This was followed by London with £856.1k and the South East with £806.2k.

Despite having the highest total as a region, one force accounted for the majority of the losses in the Yorkshire and Humber area.

Humberside Police received just 580 reports throughout the 12 month period analysed, but accounted for £1.8 million of the losses nationally. For comparison, North Yorkshire Police received 500 reports, but losses of just £6.2k in total.

Anthony McAteer of Storage Vault said: “There are a lot of reasons that contribute to us increasingly living our lives online, both privately and while at work, but just because we’re operating in a digital space, it doesn’t mean there aren’t threats we need to be aware of.

“We see customers who prefer to store paper records of their information securely, for the simple reason that it can be a simpler option than securing it against digital attacks.

“We’re approaching the part of the year where we spend the most collectively, and while it’s easy to be distracted by the festive season, people need to make sure they’re remaining aware of the risks when they’re searching for gifts for their friends and family.”