Could it be we’re all becoming a little bit blasé about cyber crime, bombarded by almost daily reports in the media? (Oh yes, TalkTalk). It’s all too easy to fall into thinking, ‘It won’t happen to me. I have a firewall!’ or, ‘We’re only a small company. Who will bother with us?’
Be warned – since we all rely so heavily on digital technology to run our business affairs, even a single cyber attack could have a huge impact.
Statistics…
The ONS recently published the England and Wales crime figures for the year ending June 2015. It has long been thought that past conclusions didn’t adequately represent fraud and particularly cyber crime. To this end, a huge field trial was undertaken between May and August with the aim of improving the collection and presentation of these statistics.
Alarmingly, in those four months the trial identified 2.5 million incidents of crime categorised under the Computer Misuse Act.
For the most part, the recorded crimes were when a victim’s computer or other device was infected by a virus but also included incidents of email or social media account hacking.
Damned statistics…
What about cyber attacks on small businesses?
- In 2014, 60% of small businesses in the UK experienced a cyber breach
- The worst breaches cost between £65,000 – £115,000[1]
No lies
Whatever you think about statistics and their accuracy, one thing is evident:
YOUR SMALL BUSINESS IS AT RISK FROM CYBER ATTACK!
Exactly how it could happen to your business, what the impact might be and what you can do about it will be covered in the following parts of this series.
[1] Small businesses: What you need to know about cyber security: HM Government, March 2015
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