A recent survey disclosed that many British organizations are overly confident when it comes to feeling prepared for a cyber attack. Of the 530 IT leaders surveyed for the Breach Confidence Index report, nearly half (49%) said that their business has not experienced a data breach. In addition, the majority of respondents (83%) said they feel confident that their organization is protected against a data security breach.
This information appears at odds with information released by the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) in mid-October: preliminary survey results showed that nearly 2.5 million cyber crimes were committed within the last year. ONS drew these figures from police reports and the Crime Survey of England and Wales, which is self-reported by victims.
“Today we stand on the frontline of a virtual war. And though the warheads launched are invisible, cyber is far from a theoretical threat. Our adversaries…are becoming ever more adept and determined to use cyber to force their advantage. Such dangers are only likely to grow. The cost of cybersecurity breaches to the UK economy roughly tripled over just the last year. Now in the order of £20 to 30 billion per year,” said Rt Hon Michael Fallon, MP, Ministry of Defense, at the 2015 Cyber Symposium. IT decision makers identified the three most common weaknesses that led to past security breaches: malware vulnerabilities ranks as a key weakness, followed by email security and employee education. According to the report, “malware exploits weaknesses in software code, and until a patch is provided to fix these problems, organizations are vulnerable.” Data security software is needed to protect against unauthorized access to the network and applications.
The Breach Confidence Index survey was conducted by market research firm YouGov and was commissioned by Ilex International, a European software vendor specializing in identity and access management.
