The latest
Zurich SME Risk Index has found that 16% of British small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) suffered a cyberattack in the last 12 months – London businesses the worst hit at 23%.
As for losses, 21% of the affected SMEs said the breach cost them more than £10,000 while 11% reported costs of over £50,000. However, not all SMEs are planning to allocate a lot for cyber security even with the heightened risk of being attacked.
The survey of more than 1,000 UK SMEs found that 49% intend to spend no more than £1,000 on their cyber defences in the next 12 months. Some (22%) don’t even have an amount in mind.
“The results suggest that SMEs are not yet heeding the warnings provided by large attacks on global businesses,” said Paul Tombs, head of SME proposition at Zurich.
Tombs commented: “While recent cyber-attacks have highlighted the importance of cyber security for some of the world’s biggest companies, it’s important to remember that small- and medium-sized businesses need to protect themselves too.”
Fieldwork for the survey was conducted from June 26 to July 04. Total sample size was 1,087 senior decision-makers from British businesses with less than 250 employees.
According to UK Government statistics as of November 2016, there are almost 5.5 million British SMEs (UK excluding Northern Ireland).
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