Incidents of online extortion reported to the police increased by nearly two-fifths in 2022 compared to a year previously, according to international law firm RPC.
The findings, which cover the full year to December 2022, were sourced from Action Fraud, the UK's national reporting center for fraud and cybercrime.
They revealed 3200 reports of cyber extortion last year, including cases of ransomware, sextortion and cases where data is stolen and held to ransom. That’s up from 2300 cases in 2021, according to RPC.
Read more on ransomware: UK Education Sector Suffered Most from Ransomware in 2022
The law firm also revealed an 8% increase in reports made by victims of email and social media hacking, up from 13,500 in 2021 to 14,600 in 2022.