Jim Hawkins of cyber-security firm C3IA Solutions
A leading cyber-security company is highlighting an official report that says more than half of UK businesses still lack basic protection.
The report from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) says these businesses can’t address cyber security themselves and don’t engage experts to do it either.
Worryingly, it adds that things haven’t improved in four years, and this is affirmed by C3IA Solutions, the leading cyber-security company headquartered in Poole, Dorset.
It works across the public and private sectors and says that some organisations still don’t understand the threats they face.
The report that used data collected from 2022 says almost 700,000 UK businesses lack the necessary cyber skills or fail to bring them in.
It adds: “The qualitative evidence continues to suggest, in line with previous years, that management boards lack an understanding of cyber security”.
Jim Hawkins from C3IA Solutions said: “This report confirms what we see, and that is a failure of many organisations to address cyber security until it is too late.
“It says that 51 per cent of businesses lack the confidence to carry out the basic tasks laid out in the government endorsed cyber security Cyber Essentials scheme, and they also fail to hire people to do it for them.
“Too often we are called in after a business’s cyber security is compromised and they have suddenly experienced that dreadful feeling that a loss of sensitive data or demand for money brings.
“Cyber Essentials provides a basic level of protection – plus free cyber insurance – and we advise every organisation and business to have it.
“New threats come every day and the hackers and programmes they use will quickly move on to another target if a particular business has clearly taken cyber security seriously.
“Any vulnerabilities in a business’s IT defence can be easily exploited – it’d be like leaving an office window open in a place where criminals operate.
“The size of business doesn’t matter because these criminals don’t always examine their targets, they just attack them.
“If businesses are setting their budgets and agendas for the coming year, we’d advise that they consider improving their cyber security if they haven’t already done so.”
