Survey: Businesses Lack Cyber Insurance, Fail to Report Attacks

According to a report from Barclays and the Institute of Directors, many businesses do not take cyber security seriously enough and are only reporting about a third of cyber-attacks. This report showed what the IOD referred to as a “worrying gap” between acknowledgment of cyber security and actual implementation of that security. The same report demonstrated that 57 percent of the polled business leaders have an actual strategy in place in case of a cyber-attack, despite 91 percent of those leaders believing that cybersecurity is important. Furthermore, only 20 percent of British business leaders had a plan in place and only 21 percent planned to develop a plan for future attacks. Of those same responders, only 28 percent claim to have reported when they were the victim of an attack. Richard Benham, cyber expert and author of the report says, “No shop owner would think twice about phoning the police if they were broken into, yet for some reason, businesses don’t seem to think a cyber breach warrants the same response.” He continues to warn, “Our report shows that cyber must stop being treated as the domain of the IT department and should be a boardroom priority. Businesses need to develop a cyber security policy, educate their staff, review supplier contracts and think about cyber insurance.”