Cyber Security: 8 Challenges to Consider to Protect Your Business

Last week marked two years since we entered lockdown in the UK and packed up our offices to work remotely. Now that we’ve reached the light at the end of the tunnel, you might expect that businesses’ heightened levels of angst towards cyber security challenges could ease. Unfortunately, that’s just not the case.

As the world has welcomed hybrid working norms, the threat from cyber security criminals continues to evolve, placing businesses under an even greater level of threat. Here are 8 challenges that your business should consider when assessing fundamental cyber security measures:

70% of remote workers who click on suspicious links don’t report it to IT

Phishing attacks are accountable for 90% of all IT security breaches for businesses. The risk is higher in organisations who have not trained their staff in best practice, making your own employees a potential cyber security threat to your business.

4 in 10 businesses report having cyber security breaches or attacks in the last 12 months

Hybrid working means more devices accessing your network remotely, some of which you might not know about. With an increased number of endpoints there are more points of access than ever for criminals to get into your infrastructure.

77% of IT teams say they fear teams will burnout and consider quitting

Increased threat levels mean increased workloads for your internal IT teams who are already stretched. Tech jobs saw the highest level of resignations throughout the ‘Great Resignation’ and increasingly, businesses are finding themselves without in-house teams to support systems that underpin business critical processes, never mind the increase in security workloads.

79% of IT teams say their rebuild rate has increased

If your team is already stretched, which critical business processes will they have to neglect in order to deal with a potential cyber security breach, or worse, attack?

1 in 5 end up losing money, data or other assets

It’s expected that cyber crime will cost organisations across the world a total of £7.95 trillion a year by 2025. But it’s not just money you’ll lose, reputational damage, loss of intellectual property and low productivity are just a few more risks to consider.

44% of all retail & education organisations worldwide were impacted by ransomware attacks in 2020

A ransomware attack can severely impact an organisation’s infrastructure, devices and operations. A lot of the data encrypted during a ransomware attack cannot be recovered, so not only do businesses face a financial hit, they also risk losing critical data.

77% of retailers believe that the number of cyber-attacks they face will surge in the next 12 months

As online penetration grows, retail is a prime target for cyber criminals who are no longer just accessing data but hacking entire supply chains, causing chaos across the industry.

Only 35% of retailers are addressing all of the gaps or weak links in their cybersecurity defences

86% of retailers have identified weaknesses in their cyber security defence, however worryingly only 35% have addressed them, leaving vulnerabilities open to exploitation.

With high-profile attacks being regularly reported in the media, businesses need to ensure they are more prepared than ever to identify and nullify cyber-attacks, as they just become part of life.

At Retail Assist, we protect our clients against internal and external threats to lower risk instantly through end point management, patch management and cyber security risk assessments. Find out more here >

Sources:
HP Wolf Security: Out of Mind and Out of Sight Report, 2021 
Gov.uk Official Statistics: Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2021
Keeper Security 2021 UK Cybersecurity Census Report
Sophos The State of Ransomware in Retail 2021