BY JAMES SIMONS
Latest government figures reveal that two thirds of UK firms have detected security breaches on their systems in the past year
The government ‘s Cyber security breaches system revealed that some of these companies were hit up to once a month. A plethora of data and information was infiltrated in some cases by viruses, and in other cases, by hacking fraudsters
One company claimed to have lost over £3 million following the cyber attack on its systems. The survey, commissioned by the department for culture, media, and sport—which commissioned the survey—an average breach cost businesses £36,500 a pop.
“Too many firms are losing money, data and consumer confidence with the vast number of cyber attacks,” said digital economy Ed Vaizey. “It’s absolutely crucial businesses are secure and can protect data.”
According to the survey, 68 percent of the cyber attacks that struck UK businesses over the past year were based on viruses, spyware, or malware. The other 32 percent of cases involved a company being fraudulently impersonated by hackers. Hackers specialize in exploiting flaws in organizations who carelessly give away information, to steal vital information useful for their dubious purposes. Some hackers manipulate the presence of viruses in extracting key private information about an organization, whilst others exploit the presence of viruses on an organization’s data base.
Some collude with insiders to steal relevant information by by being able to mimic the targeted organization.
CRACK DOWN
A National Cyber Security Centre, which will apparently begin operating in the autumn with the promise of helping businesses crack down on cybersecurity issues.
The crack down will cost the taxpayer £1.9 billion on a 5 year pledge to combat cyber security. The survey a half of the businesses had acted on government recommendations to address cyber risks, the survey showed. While just 29 percent of those firms had formal cyber security policies in place, the report stated.The government’s Cyber Governance Health Check report(PDF) covering FTSE of 350 countries, has revealed that covers 350 FTSE companies, revealed that over half of the businesses consider cyber attacks at top risk, with 77% of UK top firms allocating cash in an effort to address the problem.
