About 60% of directors and senior management in finance and insurance consider cybersecurity a very high priority—in stark contrast to the hospitality and food sectors, where only 15% do.
SavoyStewart.co.uk analyzed data from Gov.uk and found that the finance and insurance sectors have the highest concern over cybersecurity amongst the analyzed sectors. About half of those in education, health or social care consider cybersecurity as a very high priority, and in the entertainment, service and membership industries about a fifth (21%) do.
Yet, figures show that nine out of ten businesses across the board don’t have an incident management plan in the event of a cyberattack/breach.
With 83% of UK businesses online, these results dovetail with other research to form a concerning picture. For instance, data from Beaming revealed that 2.9 million UK firms suffered cybersecurity breaches last year (2016), costing firms an alarming £29.1 billion.
And, the consequences of a cyber-attack/breach can be devastating. According to Cisco, disruption to the operations of an organization (36%) is the most common result of a cyberattack/breach. After operations, impacts include finances (30%), brand reputation (26%), customer retention (26%) and intellectual property (24%).
“The calamity caused by recent cyber-attacks/breaches emphasises the need to take cyber security very seriously,” said Darren Best, MD at SavoyStewart.co.uk. “With threats, likely to intensify as cyber criminals become more ruthless, businesses cannot rest on their laurels. Business leaders cannot afford to be just concerned or treat it as another risk management exercise. They need to effectively understand, carefully manage and thoroughly assess the security of their IT estate to continually get the basic defenses right. On top of this, adequate governance and employee education on cybersecurity can go a long way in protecting a business’s key capabilities and functions”