England and Wales’ most tech-savvy areas

New research has revealed England and Wales’ most tech-savvy areas, with Cleveland coming out on top. The study by cyber security experts CloudTech24 analysed the latest data available from the National Fraud & Cyber Crime Reporting Centre to see which areas had their police force report the lowest levels of cybercrime for every 10,000 people in the past 12 months.

It found that the Cleveland area had the lowest levels of cybercrime, with Cleveland receiving 198 cybercrime reports in the last 13 months, which equates to around 3.47 reports per 10,000 people, making it the most ‘tech-savvy’ area.

The most commonly reported types of cybercrime include the hacking of personal information and the hacking of social media or email accounts.

Coming in second place is the Gwent area, which reported 208 cybercrimes in the study, equivalent to around 3.48 reports per 10,000 people when accounted for population. Approximately half of these reports were for hacking social media and email accounts.

The Durham area comes in third place. 230 cybercrime reports were received in the last 13 months by Durham police, which equates to around 3.59 reports per 10,000 people. Once again, the most widely reported cybercrime was the hacking of social media and email accounts, followed by computer malware and then extortion via hacking.

Taking fourth place on the list is the Devon and Cornwall area, with Devon and Cornwall Police receiving 647 cybercrime reports during the time of the study, equivalent to 3.62 reports per 10,000 people. Most reports also came in for social media and email account hacking.

Rounding out the top five is the Northumbria area, where in the last 13 months, there were 534 cybercrime reports or 3.63 reports per 10,000 people. Social media and email account hacking were the most common reports, followed by computer malware cases, then the hacking of personal information.

The Greater Manchester area was found to have the highest levels of cybercrime, with 6.33 reports per 10,000 people.

Commenting on the findings, a spokesperson for CloudTech24 said: “It’s interesting to see how cybercrime can affect everyone differently, with such a stark contrast between the entries in this list and the area's most susceptible to cybercrime.

“The data indicates that despite lower numbers of cybercrime in certain areas, the most common type of crime is hacking of social media and email. This highlights how important it is for people to be vigilant about online threats in their personal lives and at work.”