- The report finds that nearly two out of five companies (38%) have no cybersecurity budget or any plan to increase
- Small businesses are less likely to have cybersecurity budgets
- Reputation damage can be as bad as financial losses
Despite the fact that cyber attacks are getting closer to their homes, new research has said that many companies still do not manage to allocate enough time, money and protection resources.
An ESET report revealed that up to 15% of British companies do not even have a cybersecurity budget, with another in four (23%) confirming that they do not intend to increase cybersecurity investments despite increasing threats.
All this despite the fact that British companies have lost 64 billion pounds sterling against cyber attacks in the past three years, with recent attacks against M&S and Co-OP highlighting the severity of threats.
Companies do not adapt to emerging cyberrencies
Almost half (45%) of the companies questioned said that they managed cybersecurity internally, without any expertise by a third party, and that only 8%have an autonomous cyber-assurance police with approximately a third (35%) banking on cyberrencies covered by wider insurance policies, and more than half of not having such coverage.
Small businesses are the least likely to have a dedicated cybersecurity budget (58%), while almost all large companies have one (96%), which suggests that this area is always considered a luxury for those who have spare money and not a necessity.
In addition to enormous financial losses, such as the 25 million pounds sterling per week, M&S would have lost after his recent attack, the World Cybersecurity Advisor Eset, Jake Moore, explained that he could take months, even years, so that companies are recovering from reputation damages.
“While some major brands have the recognition of resisting the storm, many do not do so, and for them, the damage can be much more difficult to undo,” said Moore.
For the future, Moore calls for a general collaboration between industries, cybersecurity suppliers and country governments such as the United Kingdom to strengthen digital defenses.
