The annual 2018 ISME Crime Report has been published. While there has been a very slight improvement on business crime in this years report crime, business crime still remains a critical issue for SME’s. New trends continue to emerge particularly around E-Crime and this has been highlighted below. Below are the main findings of this years publication.
The main findings are:
- 34% of companies have been the target of criminal activity in the last 12 months; a 1% decrease on the 2017 figures.
- 41% of enterprises stated the direct cost of criminal activity was €1,000-€5,000, while 5% of business stated that direct cost was more than €10,000.
- 23% of respondents stated crime in their locality is ‘getting worse,’
- Of the 63% of respondents who were aware of the Crime Prevention Office, only 22% had used the service.
- On a regional basis the highest incidence of crime was reported in Leinster (excluding Dublin) at 43%, followed by Connacht at 41%. 36% of Dublin businesses reported a crime. 24% of businesses in Munster reported a crime, as did 11% of Ulster businesses
- 66% of businesses experienced more than two instances of crime, down 9% on 2017.
- 15% of businesses were the victim of false or exaggerated personal injury claims.
- After the direct cost of crime, ‘increased security costs’ at 46% have the biggest impact of crime on business (down from 54% in 2017). This is followed by ‘disruptions to trading’ as reported by 37% of respondents (up from 32% in 2017).
- 24% of businesses reported higher insurance premiums as a direct result of business crime.
- 18% reported that they would not report the crime for fear of higher insurance costs.
- 85% receive spam related email. 43% have been the victim of credit card fraud, while 14% of businesses have had their social media hacked.
- 26% of businesses have experienced computer related crime in the last 12 months.
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