Latest figures issued by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) suggest that Carmarthenshire’s cyber crime has suffered a massive increase over the past 12 months.

£9.4 million has been lost to businesses during 2021 as a combination of fraud and cyber crime.

Rural businesses are currently being targeted as they normally don’t have the supportive backup of large IT departments.

“The main problem facing rural businesses is criminal ransom,” explained Paul Peters, director of the Wales Cyber Resilience Centre.

“Lots of businesses are failing to back up their data so when they’re attacked they’re left with a choice; they can either pay the ransom or lose all their data.  And this is a very tough decision.”

But Carmarthenshire isn’t the only county facing the cyber crime increase.

The NFIB has confirmed that Wales lost over £53 million to fraud and cybercrime  last year, and for a nation of just three million people, this is an alarming amount of money to have stolen.

In response to this worrying trend, the Cyber Resilience Centre for Wales (WCRC) has launched a brand-new campaign, backed by influential business organisations to encourage the Welsh business community to increase its cyber resilience by making small, yet critical changes. 

The WCRC’s ‘We Commit’ campaign aims to raise further awareness of the increasing risk of cyber threats and how the police-led, not-for-profit organisation is helping businesses in Wales be better protected from online crime.

The centre is inviting start-ups, micro-businesses, SMEs, as well as charities, the third sector and larger corporations across Wales to consider way in which they can become more cyber resilient in 2022.

“Protecting our country’s economy is imperative and to do this, we all need to play our part by identifying what we can do to block cyberattack attempts wherever possible,” continued Paul.

“Cybercrime is something we will always have to deal with.  But at least businesses can now actively work towards boosting their resilience and what a powerful statement this makes to their colleagues, clients, customers, and supply chain.”