According to studies conducted by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), one-in-five small businesses said they had been the target of a cyber-attack over the last 24 months.
The research, which took into account the views of over 1,100 small firms, showed that over 7 million cyber-attacks were registered over the same time-frame, equalling out to 9,741 every day.
The report also found that it’s costing British businesses around $£4.5 billion to get through the attacks and bolster cyber-security accordingly. The average cost of an individual cyber-attack was found to be around £1,300, the data said.
Phishing has been a major concern over the past two years, with over 500,000 small companies saying that this method had been used against them. Malware and fraudulent payment requests were found to be similarly high-ranking on the cyber-attack variety chart, FSB said.
The research also revealed which areas of Britain are worst affected by cyber-attacks. Firms in the North West, South East and West Midlands were found to putting up with the most nefarious online activity.
Just over 30% of the firms polled said that they had introduced new cyber-security measures to cope with the increased threat levels. Alarmingly, four-in-ten of those surveyed said that they were not regularly updating their software.
Speaking on behalf of FSB, Martin McTague said:
“The issue of business crime is overlooked too often, even more so of late in this climate of sustained political uncertainty and inaction. Meaningful steps must be taken to safeguard our small firms, and by extension the wider economy.
“The Government should be doing more to tackle this scourge by enhancing the current policing response, including investing more in cyber up-skilling for police personnel as part of its wider recruitment push.
Article originally published on PrivSec:Report
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