While the benefits of technology are widely accepted, the risks are often less well appreciated. Publicity around the failures of high-profile ICT developments provide ample evidence of what can go wrong when ICT systems are poorly defined, badly managed or ineffectively developed. Deliberate acts of ICT abuse, as with all white-collar crime, are less apparent. The risks remain significant.
The Audit Commission has reported on the incidence of information and communication technology (ICT) abuse in the UK regularly since its creation. Our reports are based on surveys of both the public and private sectors and provide a snapshot of the level of ICT abuse, the reasons why it occurs and the risks that organisations need to address.
Over the past 24 years, the trend in incidents suggests that ICT abuse continues to be a threat. While new types of incident have arisen over the lifetime of our surveys, frauds, viruses and accessing inappropriate material on the internet now present the greatest risks to organisations.
This report is based on responses from 407 organisations from which there were 200 reported cases of ICT fraud and abuse. All of these occurred during the last three years - that is, 2001 to 2004.