Three-quarters of SMEs experience cyber attacks

The cost of the most severe kind of cyber attack on small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) increased to £310,800 in 2015 – up from £115,000 in 2014.

According to the Government’s Information Security Breaches Survey 2015, the cost of online security breaches for big business are now likely to start at £1.46 million – up from £600,000 in 2014.

However, more firms are taking action to tackle cyber threat, with a third of organisations currently using the Government’s “Ten Steps to Cyber Secruity” guidance, up from a quarter in 2014.

Other key findings include:

• 90% of large organisations reported they had suffered an information security breach, while 74% of small and medium-sized businesses reported the same
• for companies with more than 500 employees the average cost of the most severe breach is now between £1.46 million and £3.14 million
• for small and medium sized business the average cost of the worst breach is between £75,000 and £310,800
• attacks from outsiders have become a greater threat for both small and large businesses
• 75% of large businesses and 30% of small business suffered staff-related breaches

Andrew Miller, Cyber Security Director at PwC, comments: “With nine out of 10 respondents reporting a cyber breach in the past year, every organisation needs to be considering how they defend and deal with the cyber threats they face.

“Breaches are becoming increasingly sophisticated, often involving internal staff to amplify their effect, and the impacts we are seeing are increasingly long-lasting and costly to deal with.”