The UK government’s latest survey has revealed that half of the country’s businesses have experienced some form of cyber security breach in the past 12 months.
The findings also reveal that around a third (32%) of charities report the same exposure. This figure rises to 66% when filtered to those with a high income (£500,000 or more annually).
For medium sized businesses, the results are much higher at 70%, and large businesses experience even more at 74%.
The cost of these attacks for businesses averaged at around £1,205 over the past 12 months, although for medium and large businesses the number jumps to £10,830.
However, CEO of cyber security firm Socura, Andy Kays, advised organisations to treat these findings with caution.
“Obviously, this survey skews towards smaller businesses than many other surveys, so the numbers will always be smaller. We know that large enterprise businesses can lose millions in the event of a data breach due to the disruption, reputational impact, and share price drop,” he said.
The most common type of breach is phishing, according to the survey – 84% for businesses and 83% for charities, followed by others impersonating organisations in emails or online at 35% and viruses or other malware at 17% of businesses.
“The report indicates a clear surge in social engineering attacks,” said Chris Roeckl, CPO at cyber security firm Appdome, “a consequence of generative AI’s expanding accessibility, highlights a pressing security concern.”
“It’s imperative for brands to counteract these social engineering tactics decisively. Employing real-time behavioural analysis techniques to thwart manipulative strategies can protect consumers from falling victim to scams,” he added.
According to Socura’s Kays only a fraction of UK businesses have any kind of formalised incident response plan – a fact that he found “astounding.”
“Businesses will always have a plan in case of a fire, but will not apply the same due care for a data breach – which is statistically more likely. It flies in the face of common sense.”
