Do you know who's hacking into your details? The scourge of cyber crime is trapping thousands; Latest figures show 6,429 reports of cyber crime were made to police forces in the North East last year.
Byline: Michael Muncaster
Police need more resources to tackle the growing threat of cyber crime following a huge spike in incidents acrossthe North East, a security expert has warned.
Figures released under the Freedom of Information Act showNorthumbria Policereceived 3,384 reports of the crime in 2016, compared to just 318 two years earlier.
Durham Constabularyalso saw a sharp rise from 118 reported crimes in 2014 to 3,045 two years later - a 2,480.5% increase.
While cyber crime has become one of the biggest challenges police are facing, both forces said they have specialist teams working hard to protect victims.
However, Dr Alastair Irons, an academic dean of computer science atthe University of Sunderland, said: "The guys in the police do a wonderful job but they need to have more resources.
"The number of police people involved in cyber crime detection is a fraction of the Northumbria and Durham forces.
"Throwing money at cyber crime isn't a vote winner so what people want is bobbies on the beat and police presence.
"They want to feel safe walking down the street but because people don't understand cyber crime as an issue, they don't care until something happens to them."
Dr Irons, from Stranraer in Scotland, has been working to combatcyber crimein Wearside for more than 10 years. He worked in digital forensics before becoming an academic in cyber security.
He believes some people are unaware of the range of threats out there and fears as a society we are too ill-equipped to tackle and resist them.
"People don't take care of their digital valuables in the same way they take care of their money, car or their house," he said.
"It is about being aware, making sure you're own personal details are protected, not disclosing PIN numbers and passwords to people and not opening emails that come from sources that you don't know."
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But while technology continues to advance incredibly quickly, Dr Irons fears the opportunity for cyber crime will only get greater.
And the police know this too.
Detective superintendent Mick Barton, of Northumbria Police's digital...
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