Almost 1/2 UK businesses face cybersecurity attacks in 12 months

The Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2017, found that the larger your organisation the more attacks you experience. The most commonly reported breaches involved staff receiving fraudulent emails (72%), malware attacks (33%), impersonation of the organisation via email or online (27%), and ransomware (17%). Even though attacks can frequently have a financial impact on business, external reporting of incidents remains uncommon.

Furthermore, a third of companies have a formal policy that covers cyber security risks (33%), or document these risks in business continuity plans, internal audits, or risk registers (32%).

Only 20% of institutions have had their staff attend cyber security training in the last 12 months – with non-specialist staff particularly unlikely to have attended. One-fifth (19%) of businesses are worried about the computer security of their suppliers, but a mere 13% require suppliers to adhere to specific cyber security standards or good practice.

In the case of a cyber-security incident, almost one in ten (11%) have a management plan in place, therefore a “sizable proportion” of businesses have still not put in place basic protection and policies to protect themselves from attack.