Since the pandemic and the rise of people working from home, cyber criminals have had to adapt to their new environment prior to launching a cyber attack. The UK Government estimates that the cost of cyber crime is £27bn a year.
The latest data released in the Hiscox Cyber Readiness Report shows that organisations are upping their defences against cyber crime, with cyber security taking up 21% of the average organisation’s IT budget. This is a large jump from the 13% which was used for the same spend last year.
Although more spend could be allocated to cyber security, the increase in this year’s spend is being attributed to:
- 43% of organisations experienced a cyber attack in 2021 compared to 38% in 2020.
- Of those experiencing an attack, 73% of them experienced more than one attack in the last 12 months
- Only 9% of attacked organisations revealed that they were able to defend the attack with no impact to operations.
The report revealed that phishing was still the main way that cyber criminals were infiltrating businesses with 65% of organisations being attacked via this method, so ensuring employee vigilance is still key in the fight against crime.
More information about how to respond to a cyber security breach is available here.
