Cybercrime reigns as the most widespread form of fraud in Singapore: PwC

1 in 5 companies became victims since 2014.

Cybercrime has become much more prevalent in Singapore over the past two years, according to PwC’s latest Global Economic Crime Survey.

More than one fifth or 22% of organisations experienced some form of economic crime in the past 24 months.According to the survey, the five most pervasive economic crimes in Singapore are asset misappropriation (61%), cybercrime (43%), procurement fraud (35%), money laundering (26%) and bribery and corruption (17%).

Cybercrime incidents have risen sharply from 15% in 2014 to 43% in 2016, becoming the second most prevalent economic crime in Singapore. This figure is also higher than the global average of 32%.

Despite the rise in cybercrime, the rate of reported economic crime remains largely unchanged for the country since 2014 (24%), and is still consistently below the global average of 36%.

“The sharp increase in cybercrime is particularly worrying, especially when many Singapore-based organisations are still ill-equipped to deal with cyber-attacks,” said Chan Kheng Tek, Forensics Leader, PwC Singapore.