Juniper Research released a report that shows businesses’ attitudes toward cybersecurity and cyberattacks, and the results are surprising and discomforting. The research, conducted by Vanson Bourne, surveyed 200 British businesses. It revealed that three-quarters of companies feel they are secured against attack, even though half of these businesses have previously been under attack. It’s an interesting revelation given the climate of cybersecurity breaches that are reported on a weekly, even daily, basis.
Further, as more businesses move their critical infrastructure to the cloud, they are becoming more vulnerable to cyberattacks. But the survey revealed that despite growing security concerns, 86 percent believe they are doing enough to thwart attacks, while 33 percent of the respondents believe that it’s enough to have the IT or security department involved in mitigating the effect of cyberattacks.
“Cyber security is a big concern for businesses of all sizes, as an attack could cost millions of pounds in lost data, reputation, time, and customers. Yet, our study shows that businesses believe they are far more secure than they really are. While no business can be completely safe nowadays, there are steps that companies can take to ensure they are as safe as possible, and can recover as quickly as possible in the event of a cyberattack,” Windsor Holden, head of forecasting and consultancy at Juniper Research, stated.
The report also revealed that while more than three-quarters of businesses have a board that is involved in assessing cybersecurity preparedness, only one-quarter have a dedicated security executive.
Inconsistent security is no security at all
What’s concerning is that the research found that though most businesses have security in place, the biggest problem is that the security measures are not consistently applied and not reinforced. This inconsistency results in vulnerabilities that could make it easier for attackers to compromise the network.
Almost 90 percent of respondents stated that they have a plan when a data breach occurs, but only 69 percent of respondents would act immediately and contact someone upon discovering the breach. Meanwhile, 18 percent would wait until the next working day to take action as they do not consider a breach a huge problem. What’s most surprising is that 38 percent of founders and 27 percent of all board-level respondents do not see a cyber breach as a huge problem.
Good luck when you get hacked, folks.
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