Cyber-crime is currently the biggest threat facing businesses around the world. It has never been easier for criminals to target businesses – big or small – with sophisticated methods that steal your data and leave your business crippled.
Recent years have seen several organisations such as the NHS, HBO and Sony hit by cyber breaches, leading to business and system downtime and public scrutiny.
So it is understandable that many UK cyber security executives are concerned about what 2020 might hold. According to cyber-security firm Alert Logic’s Threat Monitoring, Detection & Response Report, 48% of cyber-security experts said they were concerned that more businesses would be hit with ransomware attacks (such as wannacry) and phishing attacks. 47% also named data loss as a growing concern for businesses, as the public becomes more concerned about the privacy and security of their personal information. Only 42% were even moderately confident that their organisations’ security would be robust enough to repel a cyber attack, highlighting the level of threat that businesses currently face.
When it came to the likelihood of a cyber attack impacting on their organisation, 32% believed it was more likely that they would be a victim, 29% thought they were now less likely, 22% didn’t think the threat level had changed and a worrying 17% weren’t even sure. The majority of respondents agreed that the best defence was detection when it came to warding off attacks. However, over half (51%) of respondents said that they lacked the budget and 49% said they had the budget but lacked the skilled personnel to maintain the defence. Only 32% expected to get a larger budget this year, 9% say they will receive less and 54% say their budget will remain unchanged, despite all the high profile cases in the news. “Overall, a large portion of security spending is driven by an organisation’s reaction toward security breaches as more high profile cyber attacks and data breaches affect organisations worldwide,” said Ruggero Contu, research director at Gartner. “Cyber attacks such as WannaCry and NotPetya, and most recently the Equifax breach, have a direct effect on security spend because these types of attacks last up to three years.”
As cyber threats become more sophisticated and the probability of an attack on your business rises, it is just as important to focus on a response to an attack, include repairing the damage done, managing media attention and spending on repairing your company’s image. A cyber insurance policy can assist with the cost of responding to a cyber attack, meaning you can focus on the defence of your business.
For more information, please call Justin Gould on 0800 542 0672or email us at sales@neilwillies.co.uk