The National Cyber Security Centre‘s (NCSC) new Suspicious Email Reporting Service (SERS) has lead to the removal of over 235,000 malicious websites since it was launched in April 2020.

Since its launch, the NCSC has received 21 million reports of malicious emails leading to the website removals, as reported by Computer Weekly.

SERS, which was launched in collaboration with the City of London Police, also received 7,726 reports of suspicious texts, resulting in 54,000 text messaging scams being removed.

The reporting service is free to use, allowing users to directly report suspicious texts and emails to the NCSC, streamlining the process of removing malicious scams.

Launched in 2020, SERS became a vital tool during the pandemic as online phishing increased while people turned even more to e-commerce and online communication during lockdowns.

The SERS reporting tool can even be added as a button to Office 365 emails to simply and easily report suspicious emails to the NCSC.

A majority of the scams reported are phishing scams, attempting to trick users into submitting card details or other credentials to bad actors, or even asking them to pay for a fake service.

Phishing emails target both individuals and businesses – just since February, there been a 163% rise in HMRC phishing scam emails targeting individuals.

Further, around 43% of adults in the UK are sharing their personal data over emails, meaning that if compromised through a phishing attack, bad actors can glean more personal information about a target, leading to more potential breaches.

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For businesses, the issues of email compromises appear to be on the rise – large businesses expect the threat of business email compromise to increase by 43.3% over the next 12 months, according to a new report.

In 2021, it was found that a third of untrained employees risk falling for a phishing attack, but now it appears that businesses are concerned even clued-up employees can put businesses at risk.

With the cost of living crisis, businesses are worried that disgruntled employees – frustrated over hard working conditions and pay not keeping up with inflation or the cost of living – are neglecting their cyber safety protocols.

Recent research by Apricon showed businesses in the UK saying around 21% of their staff were caught by phishing emails, putting their companies at greater risk of scams, fraud, and data breaches.

Reporting suspicious emails and texts is therefore a vital step for individuals and businesses to practice to increase cybersecurity and avoid scams and fraud, according to the NCSC.