14 DAY TRIAL // A study done by the British government shows that nearly half of local businesses discovered they were the victim of at least one security breach or attack in the past year.
While the overall percentage is 46%, the number rises to two-thirds among medium and large companies, which makes sense because they're more likely targets.
Data shows that these breaches often involve fraudulent emails being sent to staff or security issues relating to viruses, spyware, or malware. The survey was completed by 1,500 UK businesses, so it shows a pretty comprehensive picture of the situation.
According to the government, a "sizeable proportion" of the businesses are yet to have any protections in place, which makes the situation that much direr. Without even the basic protections against security threats, these companies are completely exposed. What's more, one-third have a formal policy covering cybersecurity risks, so many employees aren't even given basic instructions on how to avoid getting their workstations infected, and, from there, the entire network.
It's all about prevention
"There are certainly some positives coming from this report, with cybercrime getting worse year on year it’s good to see companies taking notice and awareness expanding. The only way we are going to fight malware and cyber threats is working together. That means having the right software and or hardware installed and updated, expertise at hand, training and awareness of current threats. Cyber security is everyone’s problem from the smallest corner shop right through to large scale corporations they all form an integral part of its distribution and therefore can help combat it," said Mark James, IT Security Specialist with ESET.
Amichai Shulman, CTO and co-founder of Imperva, said that, in their experience, 100% of all businesses are under attack. "With 20% of companies being breached while only 24% believe they have proper security stance we can only repeat the cliche that there are two types of business those that have been breached and those that don't know that they have been breached yet."