Cybercrime and cyber security incident statistics Report cybercrime and cyber security incidents A cybercrime or cyber security incident can cause financial and reputational damage, disrupt business and critical services, and result in further or ongoing malicious activity to an organisation. While the costs of impacts are difficult to quantify, the costs of remediation for a cybercrime or cyber security incident can be far greater than early and ongoing investment in prevention. The ACSC encourages the reporting of all cybercrime and cyber security incidents, via ReportCyber. This is the central place to report a cyber security incident, cybercrime, or a cyber security vulnerability. The ACSC is contactable via email at asd.assist@defence.gov.au or through the Australian Cyber Security Hotline on 1300 CYBER1 (1300 292 371). The hotline provides advice and assistance to Australians impacted by cyber security incidents. Cybercrime statistics During the 2020–21 financial year, over 67,500 cybercrime reports were made via ReportCyber, an increase of nearly 13 per cent from the previous financial year (see Figure 1). One cybercrime report is made approximately every eight minutes in Australia. Figure 1: Cybercrime reports by month for financial year 2020–21 compared with financial year 2019–20 9000 6750 4500 2250 0 Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Cybercrime reports FY 19–20 Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Cybercrime reports FY 20–21 Note: The notable spike in April 2020 relates to a bulk extortion campaign, resulting in nearly half of the cybercrime reports for that month. 15