Cyber Criminals are no Threat to us, SMEs Claim

Close to three quarters (74%) of SMEs in the UK feel unthreatened by potential cyber attacks, in spite of one in two of them conceding that they have experienced a breach, says a report from mobile, online and digital market research specialist Juniper.

The study revealed that half of small firms had experienced a breach, two in three of them within the last 12 months.

Most of the surveyed SMEs (86%) also believe that their actions are sufficient to defend themselves from an attack. A little over one in four (27%) feel unthreatened from an attack as they suspect they are too small for cyber criminals to be interested in them.

TalkTalk Business general manager Kristine Olson-Chapman said:

“For us, cyber security is no longer just a technology issue; it’s a business issue for the whole company. Any business that has ever had a cyber attack will tell you they never expected it, even with all the processes in place. Businesses need to ask themselves what they need to do now to plan and prepare.”

As for who is responsible, 33% regard it as an issue lying squarely at the feet of the IT department, with just a quarter having a board level security executive on the case.

Whether it is an issue for the board or not is debatable, but the board does at least need to recognise the important role cyber security has to play. By taking the time to reevaluate their IT security recruitment strategy, they would be taking some very shrewd steps.