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Anti-cyber crime leaders have urged more firms to report data attacks after research suggested only 5% are revealed to the public and fewer than one in five reported to the police.
Director of the National Crime Agency’s computer crime squad Jamie Saunders called under-reporting “a serious problem”.
Meanwhile, the national lead for economic crime Commander Chris Greany said police need more information to build “a clearer picture of the threat”.
Government figures released last week showed that only 36% of around 250 businesses that suffered a data breach in the past year had reported their most disruptive attack to a third party.
Of those, only 18% had told the police, and just 5% informed the public.
Saunders, head of the NCA’s National Cyber Crime Unit, said: “The under-reporting of cyber crime is a serious problem, hampering the disruption and prosecution of cyber crime and obscuring the full impact of cyber crime on the UK.
“The improved reporting of cyber crime would directly enable better investigation of major incidents and contribute to the ability of law enforcement to disrupt the activities of the serious organised crime gangs responsible for cyber crime.
“While it is right for businesses to focus on protective security and recovery, if we are to contain the threat in the long term we need to work together to raise the real and perceived risk to criminals of getting caught and punished.”
According to the research by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the most common type of attacks were viruses, spyware (that is designed to steal information) and malware (that disrupts computer systems); and false impersonation of the business.
Commander Greany said: “It’s vital in the fight against cyber crime that we share as much information about breaches in cyber security between government agencies, law enforcement, businesses and the public.
“Some businesses do report breaches, but it’s not universal and only by sharing information will we then be able to build up a clearer picture of the threat, so that we can then work with businesses and organisations to protect them.
“Businesses also have a duty to inform their customers of any breaches, so that they can take appropriate preventative measures.”
