Fifth of businesses in Ireland do not have a cyber policy

A Magnet+ survey has found that one in five businesses in Ireland, the equivalent of 50,000 companies, do not have a cyber security policy in place.

The research indicates that 50 per cent of Irish businesses have not implemented an email security solution to prevent cyber threats and attacks, whilst also showing that almost one third of Irish SMEs spend less than 10 per cent of their IT budget on cyber security.

When asked who was responsible for implementing a cyber security strategy in a business, 13 per cent of respondents said they either did not know who was responsible or that no one was responsible.

John Delves, managing director of Magnet+, said: "We live in a digital economy where the risk of a cyber-attack on a business is always increasing and usually these cyber hackers tend to be a step ahead. For organisations with no cyber security system in place, the potential damage that could be caused from an attack may be irreversible.”