Should you worry about the threat of cyber-attack in your organisation?

Do you have 100% confidence that your IT infrastructure can protect your organisation adequately?

With the threat of cyber attacks demonstrated to be the 4th most likely issue to keep CEOs awake in latest studies*, there is a lot of pressure on IT departments to ensure that their organisation’s data and systems are fully protected. Reports from 2018 conclude that CEOs are right to be concerned with the majority of UK businesses failing to take adequate precautions.

Threats in 2018

The predominant threats of 2018 inlcuded ransomeware, fileless malware, cross-operating system attacks, cryptocurrency mining, hardware vulnerabilities such as “Spectre and Meltdown” (link to https://www.computerweekly.com/news/450433353/Meltdown-and-Spectre-to-patch-or-not-to-patch) and vulnerabilities in interconnected devices and other emerging technologies enabling digital transformation. Organisations, more than ever, need to be constantly reviewing security as that is just the tip of the iceberg and it’s a lot to take in…

Despite these threats, an ongoing theme throughout 2018 was that organisations were failing to get the basics of cyber security right. Cyber breaches were again and again reported to be due to basic security oversights or failings. Additionally, industry experts suggest that companies are failing to learn from past attacks, not carrying out essential improvements or identifying weaknesses.

Overconfidence of UK firms

It will not help CEOs to learn that a survey carried out by Computer Weekly in July 2018 concluded that UK firms were too confident about cyber security. Three quarters of organisations considered their cyber protection above average and nearly half thought themselves “top performers”. The reality is very different with only 36% of companies performing adequate cyber security risk assessments and data from analytics firm FICO revealing that most firms are not above average.
The need to make use of new technology is exposing organisations to further security vulnerabilities through cloud, the internet of things, mobile and artificial intelligence.
The chances of many UK SMEs or larger businesses having IT staff with the skill and knowledge required to fully protect their organisation are slim.

Agile IT can help

That’s where our Agile IT Team of experts can help. They have many years of experience of working with the IT teams in different types of organisation, offering help and support and a valuable second opinion in all things IT related. It often takes an outsider to step in and take an impartial audit to get a complete picture of what has been carried out and what still needs completing. A member of our team can look at the cyber protection you have in place and make straightforward recommendations that your team may have not thought of, not have knowledge of or simply overlooked. We can then step back to allow your IT specialists to do the work required or stay and help. We can be involved as much or as little as you need.

At the end of the day, you will then be able to rest assured that, for the time being, you have had a second opinion regarding your cyber protection and your company is protected as much as it can be from the threat of cyber attack. If you are a CEO, that will be one less thing to keep you awake at night!

Contact us to find out more.

*Data taken from the 22nd PWC Annual Global CEO Survey conducted in September and October 2018 (link to https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/ceo-survey/2019/report/pwc-22nd-annual-global-ceo-survey.pdf)