Australian companies are being ripped off more than ever by customers, suppliers and cyber hackers using the dark web backed by organised crime, according to international professional services firm PwC.

PwC cyber markets leader Steve Ingram said that 60% of economic crime in Australia is committed by a "frenemy" who comes in the guise of employee, customer or supplier, according to a report on ABC News.

PwC's latest Global Economic Crime and Fraud Survey revealed that more than half of Australian companies surveyed were victims of economic crime in the past two years. One in three respondents reported losing more than A$1m ($740,000).

In Australia, PWC reported the most common types of cyberattacks were phishing, involved in 48% of attacks, malware (39%) network scanning (24%) brute force attack (15%) and ‘man in the middle’ (10%).

Commenting on the criminals, Mr Ingram said, "They use technology to penetrate organisations, to create false information and false identities."

Mr Ingram said not only was fraud and hacking becoming easier, it had also become cheaper.

"On the dark web, tools to exploit fraud are cheaper than they were 10 years ago," he said.

Mr Ingram said despite measures by the federal government and regulators, the race to keep up with the criminals is a daily battle. Despite the alarming figures reported, the PwC survey noted that 48% of Australian organisations had not completed a cyber vulnerability assessment, while 36% did not have a cybersec plan in operation.

Australia is among 18 countries of the 123 in the survey where cybercrime is a growing problem.

The PwC global survey polled 7,200 respondents, including 158 from Australia.