Thought Leadership
Cyber attacks have caused British companies to lose around 44 billion pounds (53 billion euros) in sales over the past five years, according to a study by Howden.
According to the study, 1.3 million private sector companies suffered at least one cyber attack between 2019 and 2024, costing an average of 1.9% of turnover. 905 IT decision-makers from the entire UK private sector were surveyed.
Mails and data theft
Companies with an annual turnover of over £100 million were the most affected group. 74% of respondents in this group had been victims of cyber attacks in the past five years. For SMEs with a turnover of two to 50 million pounds, the figure was 49 percent. The most common causes were compromised emails (20 percent) and data theft (18 percent). The damage caused by these attacks amounted to around two million pounds.
Despite the growing threat of cyber attacks, even the most basic cyber security measures have only been implemented to a limited extent, indicating a critical knowledge gap. Currently, 61 percent of companies use anti-virus software and 55 percent use network firewalls. According to the respondents, the fact that there are not more is due to costs (26%), insufficient know-how (26%) and a lack of IT resources (22%).
save 3.5 million pounds
Howden estimates that by implementing basic IT security measures, UK companies could reduce the cost of cyber-attacks by up to 75% or £30 billion over a five-year period. Implementing these measures could save the average UK company around £3.5 million over ten years, which would equate to a 25% return on investment.
To increase the acceptance of security measures, policy measures such as tax breaks for cyber investments (33 percent) are said to be the most effective way to improve resilience, followed by free access to cyber expertise and resources (32 percent), the introduction of mandatory minimum standards for cyber security (31 percent) and mandatory insurance for damage caused by cyber attacks (26 percent).
(pd/press release)
