Managed cloud services provider iomart has released its Cyber Security Insights Report, looking at attitudes towards cyber security and data protection in the workplace during 2020.
The research highlights a worrying complacency by many businesses towards cyber security, with 52% of respondents admitting that it is not a priority issue for them.
The majority, 70%, also said they do not provide cyber security training for all employees, with more than a quarter of UK businesses, 28%, saying they offer no cyber security training whatsoever.
iomart surveyed over 1000 business and security professionals to gather key insights from medium to large businesses to reveal the level of understanding and priorities around cyber security and data protection.
Other key findings from the report were that 20% of businesses said they had experienced a rise in cyber attacks due to the move to remote working.
When asked about their attitudes towards data protection almost half, 46%, admitted that they had no data backup policy in place, with 25% saying they had no policy for Disaster Recovery.
When asked if they carried out security due diligence on their suppliers, 60% said they did not.
The findings reveal that a significant portion of employees are in urgent need of cyber security training - although businesses are reluctant to provide it due to budget restrictions, a lack of technical expertise, or not seeing cyber security as a top priority.
Bill Strain from iomart says businesses need to minimise risk by establishing a secure back-up plan. “It’s clear that many organisations still don’t consider cyber security and data protection to be a top priority. They need to understand what the potential threats are and build resilience into their business strategy so they can react quickly and maintain operations if their IT systems are compromised.
“Many businesses would not survive the operational - let alone financial - impact of a data breach. By understanding the potential risk and introducing positive behaviour around cyber awareness, they have a much better chance of surviving an incident.”
Cyber attacks can have a devastating effect on businesses, with the total cost of a breach estimated at £2.93 million for a large business and the time taken to deal with a breach reported as 280 days.
By not addressing the issue a business could out itself at risk of a severe data hack, which in turn could cause a huge drop in company value and reputation.
iomart surveyed 1,167 business and security professionals to gather key insights from medium to large businesses across the UK, Europe and the US, to reveal the level of understanding around cyber security and data protection.
To read the full survey download a copy of iomart’s Cyber Security Insights Report 2020 https://info.iomart.com/cybersecurity-insights-report-2020.
