Half Of UK Businesses Have suffered A Cyber Security Breach Or Attack In The Last 12 Months

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NEW DATA reveals 76% of UK CEO’s believe a cyber security breach to be a significant threat to business in 2017; significantly higher than global peers at just 61%.  Consequently, 97% of British CEO’s are currently addressing possible cyber breaches in their organisation; far higher than the global average figure of 90%.

Richard Home, UK cyber security partner at PwC comments: “Most business boards now recognise that cyber security is a complex risk that requires their attention. The most successful leaders will be those who define a comprehensive, broad approach to governing cyber security.”

In defence of this, 58% of businesses have sought information, advice or guidance on the cyber security threats facing their organisations.

Reboot Online Marketing went on to analyse exactly how much each UK industry is willing to spend on their cyber security breach prevention measurements.

Over the past year, 67% of businesses have spent money on cyber security; which tends to be far higher among medium firms (87%) and large firms (91%.)
Sectors such as information, communications and utilities are spending the most on cyber security protection at a cost of £19,500. Finance and insurance follow, with an investment of £9,650 – but at the end of the spectrum is hospitality and food, with a spend of just £620. It is interesting to note, that education, health and social care has the 2nd lowest spend for cyber security (£1,810), which is concerning considering this industry is data heavy and must do more to safeguard personal data.

Ciaran Martin, CEO of the National Cyber Security Centre adds: “Most successful cyber-attacks are not that sophisticated, but can cause serious commercial damage. By getting the basic defences right, businesses of every size can protect their reputation, finances and operating capabilities.”

Reboot Online also considered the main reasons businesses choose to invest in cyber security, by selecting the top 10 responses made by 930 businesses across the UK.

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Understandably, it seems businesses are most concerned with the protection of customer data (51%) and the loss of high-value assets, such as trade secrets, intellectual property and cash (28%.) The prevention of fraud or theft (17%) and the protection of reputation or brand (10%) were comparatively lower.

Areas of least concern were complying with laws and regulations (7%), the protection of staff and systems (4%) and improving overall efficiency of the business (4%), indicating a definite disparity between business factors and how much each means to – or may cost – a company to rectify.

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