According to new research by Hiscox, a business insurance provider, UK companies are on average being targeted with 65,000 attempted cyber-attacks every single day.
These worrying figures were uncovered after a study monitored the number of attempted attacks on three so-called ‘honeypot’ computer systems which are representative of those used by SMEs across the nation.
Whilst at the lower end of the scale only 900 attacks were being carried out on a daily basis, the worst recorded number for just one day was a massive 359,000, before averaging out at 65,000.
Perhaps even more of a cause for concern is that – again according to Hiscox – only 52% of small UK businesses have clear and identifiable cyber security processes in place. This is despite the frequency of attacks increasing rapidly in recent years.
In 2017, the average tangible cost of repairing the damage from a cyber-attack was apparently £25,700. This amount would likely come from paying ransoms and replacing hardware, to give two examples. It does not, however, include the follow-on costs of reputational damage due to this being extremely hard to measure.
Having worked with hundreds of companies based in Yorkshire and the North East and North of England over the past decade, Walsh Taylor fully understand the potential financial consequences of a cyber-attack.
When an organisation has not been in business for long or when cashflow is tight, the need for stringent security is sometimes overlooked.
In addition to ensuring that you are as secure as possible, we also recommend that if you are a victim of an attack that you seek assistance straight away. If there are financial consequences of an attack, the sooner an insolvency practitioner is contacted about the financial issue, the quicker they can outline all the options that are currently available to you.
For more information on how we can help, please feel free to call 03300 244 660.
