Two-thirds of UK organisations have not provided their employees with cyber security training, according to a recent survey from professional IT solutions firm, Ultima. What’s more, half admitted they are unprepared for an attack and, if an attack occurs, they have no recovery plan in place. This extensive negligence for cyber security is particularly troubling, as each UK organisation was subjected to 230,000 cyber attacks in 2016, according to research from internet service provider, Beaming. While not every attack was successful, the ones that were cost the UK economy approximately £30 billion in total losses.
The five most common and dangerous cyber threats to your organisation include the following:
1. Ransomware: A piece of malicious software that encrypts all of the data on an organisation’s network and can only be decrypted after paying cyber criminals a ransom.
2. Hacking: A cyber criminal will exploit an unpatched vulnerability within an organisation’s security software to access its data.
3. Denial-of-service attack: An organisation’s website is maliciously overwhelmed by a high volume of data pushed to its servers, which temporarily or indefinitely interrupts services.
4. Human error: Information lost or distributed to the wrong person.
5. CEO fraud: A cyber criminal poses as a senior person within an organisation, either by hacking or ‘spoofing’ an email account, and convinces someone with financial authority to transfer money.
Fortunately, according to government research, 80 per cent of all cyber attacks can be stopped by implementing basic cyber security. These practices include the following:
For more information on how insurance can protect your organisation from cyber attacks, contact Bond Lovis Insurance Brokers today.