The Deloitte Consumer Review - Consumer Data Under Attack: The Growing Threat Of Cyber Crime

Foreword

Welcome to the latest edition of the Deloitte Consumer Review. This edition focuses on cyber crime and security for consumer businesses.

The potential for cyber crime has grown dramatically over the past few years as cyber criminals constantly adopt more profitable, effective and efficient tactics. Cyber crime is on the rise, not only in the number of attacks but also in its severity. In the UK cyber crime costs businesses £34 billion per year, including £18 billion from lost revenue.* In our experience, organisations are still unprepared to deal with different types of attacks and are at best aiming to mitigate the risk, rather than preventing attacks in the first instance.

At the same time, major technological developments are challenging the way businesses compete and operate. Businesses' digital activities continue to grow due to the digitalisation of operations and functions. Not only are businesses collecting more data they are also becoming increasingly dependent on it for their day-to-day operations. In a world where cyber crime is becoming ever more attractive, businesses are exposed to more security risks than ever before.

Our research shows that as a result of the increase in cyber attacks, consumers are becoming more distrustful about how secure their data really is when sharing their personal information with businesses. This lack of trust provides an opportunity for businesses to act transparently and reassure consumers that their data is safe with them. Businesses need to be explicit not only in how they secure consumers' data, but also in the benefits to consumers of sharing their data and in giving them the choice about how their data is used.

Together, these issues illustrate why cyber-security risks have become a priority for leaders in business and why now is the time to act to ensure that effective cyber-security measures form part of the business strategy.

We hope this report gives you the insight and data to enhance your understanding of the opportunities and challenges in your sector, and welcome your feedback.

Executive summary

The more data a business collects about its consumers and the more sensitive that data is, the greater the data's attractiveness to cyber criminals. With businesses becoming more and more dependent on data to manage their operations, the risks of cyber crime can only get greater. Although consumers tend to get caught in the middle, they are not always the prime target. Some criminals...

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