The UK Government’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology recently published the Cyber Security Breaches Survey for 2023. Below we look at some of the key findings and actions you can take to ensure your business doesn’t become part of these statistics.
Headlines for cyber-attacks on UK businesses in the past 12 months:
2.39 million instances of cyber crime.
49,000 instances of cyber fraud.
Average annual cost of cyber crime is £15,300 per victim
11% of UK businesses have experienced cyber crime in the last 12 months
40% of UK businesses report monthly attacks; 20% report weekly attacks
Proportion of micro businesses saying cyber security is a high priority has decreased from 80% in 2022 to 68% this year.
Just over one in ten small businesses say they review the risks posed by their immediate suppliers. Medium sized businesses are at 27% with 55% for large business.
Just under half the businesses surveyed chose to access guidance on cyber security outside of their organisation, most commonly from cyber specialists or IT providers.
What are the main takeaways from this latest survey?
The rate, regularity and cost of cyber crime and impacts on the victim are continuing to grow.
Cyber resilience has understandably dropped down the priority list as businesses battle to save costs or survive the challenging economic climate.
There are still many organisations choosing not to seek support from subject matter experts in establishing resilience against their threats.
Where should organisations start in preventing themselves becoming a victim?
Simple, inexpensive steps include:
Applying multi-factor authentication so threat actors cannot just access systems with one password.
Establish a simple policy set for the organisation to follow around governance, passwords, training, action owners and managing a potential incident.
Test! As a business, you can quickly and inexpensively understand what your true risk exposure is in a matter of hours via a penetration test – consider understanding what your current state of play is before investing time and expense in areas that may not require it.
For any other advice or support required, and to find out how we’re helping businesses on their first steps towards cyber resilience, contact us here or email us at hello@amicisgroup.co.uk
You can read more about the Cyber Security Breach Survey of 2023 by following the link below:
