A new report has revealed the areas worst hit by the scammers across the UK.

It comes as cyber crime becomes more prevalent and more online accounts are being hacked as online transactions increase.

Here's what you need to know.

Where are the worst areas for hackers in the UK?

The top five worst hit areas include in order from one to five:

  • Cambridgeshire
  • North Wales
  • Cumbria
  • Thames Valley
  • Norfolk

Data analysed from the Office for National Statistics and police show how different regions of the UK are seeing a differing increase in cyber crime.

Cambridgeshire, seeing the largest increase, shows cyber crime rising by 32 per cent over the past three years.

What is cyber crime worth?

The cyber crime industry is worth more than $1.5 trillion with a frightening 85 per cent of organisations reporting phishing and social engineering attacks every year.

Sales and marketing director at fasthosts.co.uk, which compiled the report, Michelle Stark, said: “It’s sad to see cyber crime increasing so rapidly across the UK.”

She added: “With consumers digitally connected with many local and national businesses, staying safe online is critical to protect your bank balance and keep your data secure.

“We urge all consumers to check the site is secure before they enter any data, and if uncertain, never proceed with inputting details”

From fake emails to bank fraud, cyber crime is growing both in intelligence and quantity of crimes.

With cyber crime increasing, a new interactive map by Fasthosts.co.uk has revealed the areas of the UK which fall victim to cybercrime the most often, along with the percentage increase over the last three years.

Whether it’s the businesses operating in that area, or the case that’s it’s just a hotbed of criminal activity.

Which other areas are affected by cyber crime?

Outside the top five areas worst for cyber crime outlined above there is Nottinghamshire at six, Suffolk at number seven, Bedfordshire at eight, Leicestershire at nine and North Yorkshire at ten.

At 11 is West Yorkshire, 12 Merseyside, West Midlands at 13, Humberside at 14, Kent at 15, Warwickshire at 16, Greater Manchester at 17, South Yorkshire at 18, Cleveland at 19 and finally Dorset at number 20.

The full report can be seen by visiting www.fasthosts.co.uk/data-breach-capital website.

To calculate the index, cybercrime data from ONS government database was analysed.

The data is taken by analysing the number of cybercrimes per region in 2016, 2017 and 2018.

The increase/decrease in total reported cases was then calculated over the selected time period.

High profile Twitter accounts hacked

Also in the news Twitter suffered an unprecedented attack in which high profile accounts were targeted including those of former President Barack Obama, US Democratic candidate Joe Biden, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk along with hundreds more account holders.

News and Star:

At the time of the hack handles of boxer Floyd Mayweather and celebrity Kim Kardashian had also been affected.

Also during the time that the Tweets were live, the crypto currency Bitcoin wallet promoted in the tweets received more than $100,000.

Twitter acknowledged that its internal systems during the incident had been targeted by hackers and the hackers had also targeted some employees with access to internal systems and tools.