Most firms fail to report IT security incidents

Barclays, along with Institute of Directors (IoD), has published a new report detailing findings of a survey, which featured 908 members of the IoD. The research found that just 28% of IT security cases are reported.

The report was written by Professor Richard Benham, who said that companies should come to terms with the reality of cyber attacks, encouraging them to turn the issue into a subject for the boardroom.

Benham said shop owners would immediately call the authorities in the event of a burglary, yet they don’t appear to treat a cyber breach with the same degree of importance.

He added:

“Our report shows that cyber must stop being treated as the domain of the IT department and should be a boardroom priority. Businesses need to develop a cyber security policy, educate their staff, review supplier contracts and think about cyber insurance.”

The report further found that just 57% of companies implement a formal IT security strategy, with only 49% providing IT security awareness and training.

The IoD claims that this ranks as a serious issue due to human error often being the basis for cyber incidents.

Without training their staff, businesses are essentially making themselves an open target. The simplest, and most effective, way of approaching the issue would be to make IT security jobs available to those who are already trained in dealing with a security breach. For any business that values the confidentiality of they data they hold, it may be one of the wisest moves they could make.