SASIG calls for greater focus on real-life cyber resilience

The Security Awareness Special Interest Group has again reiterated the need for improved real-world cyber resilience within businesses to protect from the ongoing prevalence of cyber attacks.

The call comes following the publication of the latest government Cyber Security Breaches Survey, which found that nearly four in ten UK businesses had experienced a cyber attack in the past 12 months, the same percentage as last year.

The most common cyber attack type was phishing attempts (83 per cent), although of the 39 per cent, around one in five (21 per cent) identified a more sophisticated attack type such as a denial of service, malware, or ransomware attack.

Within the group of organisations reporting cyber attacks, 31 per cent of businesses and 26 per cent of charities estimate they were attacked at least once a week and one in five businesses and charities say they experienced a negative outcome as a direct consequence of a cyberattack.

Martin Smith, chairman of The SASIG, said: “It’s clear from these latest government findings that cyber attacks are very much still an issue for British businesses, small and large. The findings illustrate that the impacts of these attacks are operational and financial, with the estimated cost of attacks in the last 12 months amounting to £4,200 and rising to £19,400 when looking specifically at medium and large businesses. The government itself admits that these figures are also probably underreported which is extremely worrying. While many businesses are working to prevent such attacks and put plans in place to deal with them when they occur, it is clear more still needs to be done.”

Real-world cyber resilience is the over-arching theme at Big SASIG, a unique one-day cyber security conference run by The SASIG on 25 May 2022, in London.