Cyber security incidents prevalent among larger organisations

Over 80% of charities and 74% of businesses experienced a cyber security incident in the last twelve months according to a survey on the issue.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport published its findings from wave two of its Cyber Security Longitudinal Survey following on from the publication of its wave one report in January 2022. 

Surveying medium and large businesses alongside high-income charities, the survey seeks to discover cyber security policies within the organisations and their link to the likelihood and impact of any ‘cyber incident.’ 

According to the published report, businesses are more likely than charities to have a formal cyber security police and processes though most organisations still have a reactive instead of proactive approach to cyber issues. 

As data from the survey also found a link between those organisations that had experienced a cyber incident and those that had placed protective measures and processes for managing an incident, it said: ‘This could indicate organisations more engaged with cyber security are more likely to detect incidents, and/or that organisations tend to put measures in place after they experience an incident.’

However, around 85% of the organisation surveyed had taken some action to improve their cyber security and around eight in ten of those with a VPN require employees to use it when accessing their network outside of the workplace. 

Additionally, almost 60% of organisations have delivered some sort of cyber security training or awareness sessions for staff or volunteers not directly involved in the issue, an increase on the previous survey’s results. 

One of the main issues highlighted by the department was a lack of engagement at a board level, with only half of the business surveyed and 40% of charities reporting that they had at least one board member with oversight of cyber security risks. Though about 90% of organisation have at least one of the five documents considered ‘part of an effective cyber security strategy. 

Last year, a survey by Apogee Corporation found that 21% of public sector organisations were concerned about cyber breaches with employees working from home. 

You can find the full report on the government’s website here.

Photo by Privecstasy