Every business faces cyber security challenges daily. Tackling them can eat into time and resources, and some may not even be on your radar.
These 5 uncomfortable facts drawn from international research confirm just how tough it can be to protect your business from the threat of cyber crime.
#1 The chances are higher than you think
Studies show that 1 in 5 businesses fell victim to a cyber attack last year.
Larger organisations were targeted more than smaller businesses. This may come as no big surprise with more valuable data up for grabs. But remember, these organisations have more IT resources and manpower to protect their systems, yet breaches were still made.
#2 Unlike lightening, cyber attacks do strike twice
If your business falls victim to a cyber attack, it’s likely to be hit more than once. On average, a business is hit twice but it’s not unheard of for a business to be hit 4 or more times! If there’s an unpatched vulnerability in your defences, it will be exploited.
#3 It’s not always obvious
When you think of a cyber attack, you may think of your PC or laptop running slow or behaving oddly. But in fact, over 36% of attacks take place out of sight on the server. As a result, the average time it takes a business to spot a cyber attack is a staggering 13 hours. That’s a long time for a hacker to have free rein over your systems and data.
But if you thought that was shocking, some reports show that 68% of security breaches take months to discover and at least 17% of threats are never detected. For the vast majority of businesses, the ability to understand cyber security threats at the level required for robust defences requires the time and resources they just don’t have.
#4 Know your vulnerabilities
Research shows that around 20% of businesses that have suffered a cyber attack have no idea how their defences were breached (which takes us back to #2!).
Finding the vulnerability can be a challenge. It takes an expert level of skill and resources to analyse an attack, and the priority has to be business continuity and minimising downtime.
Despite the increasing cyber threat, one in five businesses don’t know what to do in the event of an attack
#5 Time is money
On average, businesses spend 4 days a month investigating suspected cyber security threats that turn out to be false alarms; that’s 41 days a year lost to resolving a non-issue. Whilst this feels like a strain on your productivity, no suspected threat can be ignored.
Jupiter IT – your proactive IT department
With our proactive IT support and cyber security services, your systems are constantly monitored in the background while you focus on your daily business. We conduct regular cyber security audits based on the 5 key controls set by the Government-backed Cyber Essentials initiative.
We also ease the pressure of keeping up to speed with the latest cyber crime developments as we do that for you. To find out more, drop us a line – we’re waiting to share our expertise with you.
