Cyber Crime Cost UK Businesses £87billion

Cyber crime in the UK has doubled in the last five years, costing businesses £87 billion since 2015, according to a new study by specialist business Internet service provider (ISP) Beaming.   The cyber security study found that a quarter (25%) of UK businesses were targeted by cyber criminals in 2019, up from 13% in 2015. Overall, the number of affected businesses rose from 755,000 to 1.5 million.

A big majority of 70% of cyber security professionals said they believe they will have to respond to a major security breach in their own organisations in the coming year,  up from 59% in 2018. The percentage of respondents claiming to have fallen victim to cyber crime rose over the period from 13% in 2015 to a quarter (25%) last year  - equivalent to around 1.5 million businesses.

Although large firms with over 250 employees were the most likely to suffer attacks, with over 87% impacted last year, smaller businesses (11-50 employees) experienced the steepest rise, from 28% in 2015 to 68% last year.

Beaming, which interviewed more than 2,500 business leaders about their cyber security, estimated the total cost of cyber security breaches over the last five years to be more than £87 billion, taking into account damaged assets, financial penalties and lost productivity.

Over the course of Beaming’s research, the most at-risk group were large companies consisting of at least 250 employees, with nine out of 10 (87%) falling victim in the last year. However, small companies (11-50 employees) experienced the steepest increase in being targeted, rising from 28% in 2015 to 62% in 2019. 

Malware was found to be the biggest concern for business leaders. While only 26% of businesses decided to take additional measures to combat malware in 2015, the number grew to 45% in 2019. Other significant concerns included hacking, password attacks, as well as phishing, which is currently the most likely attack to hit a business, regardless of size. Beaming found that the proportion of businesses hit by phishing attacks grew from 6% in 2015 to 9% in 2019.

In a third of all breach cases (37% in 2015 and 36% in 2019), responsibility was with the employees, whether it was through malicious intent, neglect, or genuine mistakes.

According to Beaming ,businesses of all sizes need to think hard about improving the resilience of their IT and communication systems  to minimise the chances of being breached and the potential impact. When asked whether they have sufficient security staff to defend their enterprises against current cyber-threats, 59% said No. When asked whether they had enough budget to defend their data against current threats, a majority (56%) also answered No

“The threat has grown astronomically over the last five years. What used to be seen as a big-business problem has become a serious concern for every company director, manager and IT professional out there..... Small businesses are now on the front line in the war against cyber-crime. But they haven’t invested in cyber security or employee education at the same rate as their larger counterparts, and they are easier targets as a result.” said Beaming's Sonia Blizzard.

Although many small (20%), medium (24%) and large companies (36%) now discuss cyber-threats at board level, investments in security have not always been forthcoming. In 2015, 30% of businesses had a firewall at the network perimeter; a figure that stands at just 37% today. Those with employee awareness-raising programs in place rose from 20% to just 22% over the same time.

Beaming:       ITPro:        Infosecurity Magazine:      Dark Reading:

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