Cyber Attacks On British Business Every Minute

Research from business ISP specialist Beaming has revealed the volume of cyber attacks on UK businesses has increased by almost a third in the first three months of 2020.  Internet connected business experienced 157,000 attacks each, on average, in the first quarter, the equivalent of more than one a minute.

This rate of attack was 30 per cent higher than the same period in 2019 when UK businesses received 120,000 internet-borne attempts to breach their systems each.

Beaming analysts identified 394,000 unique IP addresses used to attack UK businesses in the first quarter of 2020, discovering that companies with Internet connections experienced 157,000 attacks each, on average, the equivalent of more than one a minute.

This rate of attack was 30% higher than the same period in 2019 when UK businesses received 120,000 internet-borne attempts to breach their systems each.

“The record levels of cyber-attacks on UK businesses experienced during the second half of last year were maintained in the first three months of 2020, with companies being attacked more than once every minute on average.... Businesses of all sizes need to take the threat seriously and take sensible steps to improve their resilience to attack, particularly now that the risk is magnified with so many people working from home.” said Sonia Blizzard, the managing director of Beaming.

• IoT applications such as building control systems and networked security cameras were the most common targets for cybercriminals in the first quarter, attracting almost 19,000 online attacks per company. 

• Company databases and file-sharing systems were also targeted frequently, with companies experiencing approximately 5,000 attacks for each application, on average.

The number of internet-borne attacks in 2019 was 152 percent higher than the 281k in 2018 and was the largest volume of cybercrime attempts recorded in a single year since Beaming started analysing attacks in 2016. 

On average, cyber criminals from around the world subjected UK businesses to 66 different attacks every hour during 2019.
Where are the attacks coming from?

Beaming’s analysts identified 1.8 million unique IP addresses used by cybercriminals to launch attacks on UK businesses during 2019 and traced a fifth (18%) of them to locations in China. A significant amount of attack activity also originated from IP addresses located in Brazil (7%), Taiwan (6%), and Russia (5%).

Beaming:      Beaming:     Infosecurity Magazine:    

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