April 30th 2019

UK BUSINESSES MORE AT RISK OF CYBER-ATTACKS IN 2019, YET STILL ADMIT THEY ARE UNDER-PREPARED

New research by global insurer, Hiscox, found that 55% of businesses have suffered a cyber-attack already in 2019, a jump up from 40% in the previous year. As part of their research, Hiscox surveyed more than 5,400 small, medium and large businesses across seven countries, including the UK, Germany, the US, Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Spain.

The research shows that although the threat of attack is increasing, businesses are still failing to prepare for a cyber-attack, despite the potential financial losses a business can suffer due to attack. In the past year alone, the cost of cyber incidents has risen by 61%, from $229,000 to $369,000. Disappointingly, UK businesses have been identified as having the lowest cyber security budgets, despite the rising financial impact.

Declining budgets lead to a lack of cyber security preparedness, with businesses lacking adequate cyber security strategies in place to manage an attack or breach. The research has found that progress in cyber readiness has stalled, with businesses failing to progress their cyber security strategies in parallel to the threat. Business owners can often become complacent by a belief that their industry or business size is less at risk, however the research shows that no industry is immune, as all sectors surveyed have seen a rise in attacks.

3 STEPS TO PREPARE YOUR BUSINESS FOR CYBER-ATTACK

In order to avoid the huge operational and financial impact of a cyber-attack, there are a number of steps you can take to improve your cyber security strategy. It is imperative for businesses to create a strategy that allows them to prepare, prevent, detect and react should a cyber-attack take place.

1. Gain executive buy-in: It is essential that the board are bought in to the cyber security threat and understand the risks to the organisation should they not be prepared. Gaining executive buy-in is vital for securing budget required to prepare for attack.

2. Employee training: Human error and negligent employees is the biggest risk facing your organisation when it comes to the risk of cyber incidents. Ensuring your employees are trained to adhere to company wide security policies and practices is key to ensure your cyber security strategy will work.

3. Multi-layered protection: The best approach to cyber security is a multi-layered one, where you combine a next generation firewall with deep packet inspection, email security, content filtering and more. Finding the right cyber security tools for your business will ensure the success of your cyber security strategy.

Tackling the daunting prospect of creating a cyber security strategy that will work to protect your organisation may seem like a mammoth task, but is necessary to ensure your business doesn’t face severe financial, operational and reputational damage. Working with Lily, we can provide the cyber security tools you need to protect your business and data. Our skilled cyber specialists are best placed to advise you on how the latest technologies used to protect organisations will suit you, along with giving practical advice on supporting your organisation from a cyber security perspective.

If you’re looking to improve your cyber security strategy, contact us today.