Interesting Facts About Cyber Security You Need to Know

Cyber security is no doubt on your priority list when it comes to protecting your business. And so it should be. A look at the latest statistics and let’s face it, alarming facts about cybercrime, really does bring home the seriousness of the issue at hand, and why you should be focusing a good deal of attention on measuring and mitigating risk. Because cybercrime has the potential to do a huge amount of damage, both in financial and reputational terms.

 

According to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport’s Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2021, four in ten businesses and a quarter of charities have reported cyber security breaches or attacks in the past 12 months. As in previous years, there is a trend for medium and large businesses, and high-income charities, to be the worst hit. However, this does not mean that smaller businesses are not targeted.

 

The COVID effect

 

Evidence from the study reveals that cyber risks are higher than ever under COVID-19, and that businesses are finding it more challenging to manage cyber security measures during the pandemic.

 

The past year has been UK businesses lose over £6 million to cyber scams, with a 31 per cent increase during the height of the pandemic in 2020. Police data shows that nearly 3,500 UK businesses became victims of cyber scams between September 2019 and September 2020.

 

The pandemic as resulted in widespread changes to working methods, making cyber security a great deal harder for businesses.

 

With staff working remotely, direct security and user monitoring became more difficult. Fewer businesses deployed security monitoring tools and less undertook any form of user monitoring.

 

The upgrading of hardware, software and systems also became more difficult and with staff working from home, it was more of a challenge to ensure malware protection was up to date. Fewer businesses also said they’d set up firewalls, and many had staff working on laptops with unsupported versions of Windows, something that affects 32 per cent of large businesses.

 

Frequency of cyber attacks

 

It would appear that cyber-attacks are becoming increasingly frequent. Around a quarter of organisations that have identified breaches or attacks stated that they experienced them at least once a week.

 

The most commonly reported cybercrimes are phishing attacks, followed by impersonation.

 

The cost of cyber crime

 

The Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2021 found that a large number of organisations that identified breaches reported a specific negative outcome or impact, with substantial costs implications.

 

Amongst the 39 per cent of businesses and 26 per cent of charities that identified cyber breaches or attacks, around 20 per cent resulted in loss of money, data or other assets. 35 per cent of businesses and 40 per cent of charities said they had been negatively impacted in terms of having to implement new data protect measures, seeing staff time diverted, or other wider business disruption.

 

Where businesses have faced breaches with material outcomes, the average cost of all the cyber security breaches over the past 12 months is estimated at around £8,460. For medium and large businesses, the average cost rose to £13,400.

 

The effects of cybercrime

 

70 per cent of consumers say they would stop doing business with a company if it experienced a data breach, according to a global survey of 10,000 consumers by digital security specialists Gemalto.

 

The Deloitte Consumer Review states that one in three consumers would close an online account following a data breach, or stop dealing with the business they believed to be responsible.

 

Summary statistics

 

Cyber security is hitting the headlines in growing measures. Despite this fact, it would appear that not all businesses are doing everything they should be to stave off the risks.

 

To help further emphasise the importance of cyber security, here are some quite stark cyber-crime facts…

 

• 88 per cent of UK data breaches are down to human error

 

• 46 per cent of websites carry high cyber security vulnerabilities

 

• 95 per cent of successful cyber-attacks result from phishing scams

 

• Organisations see a 70 per cent reduction in security risks when they invest in cyber security training

 

• Every 14 seconds a business becomes the victim of a ransomware attack

 

• 48 per cent of UK manufacturers are targets for cybercrime

 

• Only 2 per cent of business IT budget is used for security

 

• 70 per cent of employees don’t understand cybersecurity

 

Is your business prepared for a data breach or cyber-attack?

 

According to the statistics and these interesting facts about cyber security, cyber-attacks are more of a when rather than if scenario. It is therefore crucial to ensure your business is protected.

 

Here at PC Docs, we offer a comprehensive range of fully tailored cybersecurity solutions. Why let your business become a statistic when you could have the protection and expert advice you need?

 

To discover how we can protect your business against the risks of cybercrime, please get in touch.