The National Cyber Security Strategy 2016-2021 outlines the Government’s aim to make the UK secure and resilient to cyber threats and, as part of the review into implementation of this strategy, the government has published the Cyber Security Breaches Survey for 2017. The 2017 study comprised a telephone survey of 1,523 UK businesses, which were then weighted to be statistically representative of the UK business population by size and sector, and 30 in-depth interviews. Sole traders and public sector organisations were not included in the survey.

Significant findings of the survey are as follows:

• Almost half of British businesses (46%) discovered at least one cyber security breach or attack in the past year.
• Businesses increasingly see cyber security as an important issue.
• There is still a need for businesses to seek information, advice or guidance on cyber security risks and to protect themselves from them.
• The most common type of cyber security breach occurs where staff receive a fraudulent email (72% of reported cases) with the next most common being related to viruses, spyware and malware (33%).
• The typical business is likely to experience only a handful of breaches in the space of a year but a minority suffer considerably more.
• The average cost of a breach for medium to small businesses is £1,570. For large businesses, that cost rises to £19,600.
• External reporting of breaches is uncommon, with only 26% of businesses reporting an attack to an external agency.

Please contact Chris Evans for questions related to the post. 

This news was posted on 26 April 2017.