The Security Awareness Special Interest Group (SASIG) has called for greater focus on real-life cyber resilience following the launch of government research on UK cybersecurity breaches.

The study found that 39 per cent of UK businesses had experienced a cyberattack in the past 12 months – the same percentage as last year.

The government research found that the most common cyberattack 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.

The SASIG said that there is a need for improved real-world cyber resilience within businesses to protect from the ongoing prevalence of cyberattacks.

“It’s clear from these latest Government findings that cyberattacks are very much still an issue for British businesses, small and large,” said Martin Smith MBE, founder and chairman of The SASIG. “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.”

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