Cyber-attacks reported by more than 50 percent of UK companies
UK businesses admit to not being prepared for cyber-attacks
News agencies report a significant increase in British companies declaring incidents of cyber-attack, despite most businesses readily admitting they are unprepared for data breaches, according to insurance firm, Hiscox.
The insurer’s research found 55% of businesses had suffered an attack in 2019. This represents an increase of 40 percent compared to 2018.
Alarmingly, almost 75 percent of companies were ranked as “novices” when it comes to being cyber-ready. The firm said many businesses “incorrectly felt that they weren’t at risk”. Hiscox surveyed more than 5,400 small, medium and large businesses in seven countries.
These included the UK, Germany, France, Belgium, Spain, the Netherlands and the USA. Losses caused by breaches have rocketed by more than 60 percent, from £176,000 to around £284,000.
Despite this negative trend, Hiscox reported that the number of businesses scoring top marks on cyber security had fallen, with British firms doing particularly badly.
Overall, UK companies spent less on cyber security, spending an average of less than £700,000 compared with approximately £1.13m across the polled group. Hiscox’ head of Cyber, Gareth Wharton, said the low UK spending could be driven by the large number of small businesses in Britain.
They may feel like they won’t be targeted, as we tend to only read about large breaches in the press. If they incorrectly feel that they won’t be targeted, they may be less likely to spend on cyber security.
But Hiscox also noted the average cost of individual cyber-attacks in the UK was lower than average at £187,000 compared with £374,000 in Belgium and £697,000 in Germany.
Action against cyber-attacks has been infuenced by new regulations, with eight out of ten UK companies saying they had implemenmted changes since the GDPR came into effect in May 2018. Source: BBC News
