The recent Cybersecurity Breaches Survey suggests that despite half of all the UK big businesses' regarding cyberattacks as their biggest threat; they're still clueless as to how to protect themselves.
Is your business protected against cyber attack? 60% of large UK firms fell victim last year https://t.co/mfaGEaboCW pic.twitter.com/Yc8zeAzjB2
— Jane McCallion (@janemccallion) May 9, 2016
The average cost of a malware or spyware attack is around US$52,000 (£36,000), however the survey found only 13 percent of businesses attempt to mitigate the threat by holding their external suppliers to some level of cybersecurity standard.
"I'm not too surprised to see these attacks and breaches are affecting more businesses," Chris McIntosh, UK CEO of tech security company ViaSat said.
The survey, backed by the British government reveals many businesses are simply unaware of the damage malware can do to their firms and what they can do to protect against it.
Last October, British Internet and cellphone provider Talk Talk had its security breached, compromising the personal information and bank details of four million customers.
UK firms struggling to sleep because of threat of #cyberattack & data theft https://t.co/br4h0tIPIf#noddleprotect pic.twitter.com/eo2YgWgEGm
— Callcredit (@Callcredit) April 22, 2016
Britain's Digital Economy Minister Ed Vaizey said it was "crucial businesses are secure and can protect data."
"Too many firms are losing money, data and consumer confidence with the vast number of cyber-attacks," he said.
The UK government is investing US$2.75 billion (£1.9bn) to prevent cybercrime and will set out proposals later this year how it intends to improve the government's own online security.
