Cyber-attacks against businesses have become increasingly frequent, yet many businesses leave themselves vulnerable due to a lack of preparation.
A new survey released the Economist Intelligence Unit and Arbor Networks show that 83 percent of companies are not ready to deal with a cyber security breach.
The report, “Cyber incident response: Are business leaders ready?” surveyed C-level executives and other company leaders from around the world about their company’s security policies.
Out of the companies surveyed, 77 percent had already faced a cyber-attack over the past two years, yet 38 percent of them continue not to have a plan ready for dealing with another incident.
“As these findings show, when it comes to cyber-attacks, we live in a ‘when’ not ‘if’ world,” said Matthew Moynahan, president of Arbor Networks, in a press release. “In the wake of recent high profile targeted attacks in the retail sector, a company’s ability to quickly identify and classify an incident, and execute a response plan, is critical to not only protecting corporate assets and customer data, but the brand, reputation and bottom line of the company.”
Cyber-attacks can be very costly to companies, according to “Global Corporate IT Security Risks: 2013” by Kaspersky Lab.
The study showed that a serious cyber-attack can cost about $649,000 for a large company and $50,000 for a small to medium-sized company.
Targeted attacks can be even more costly, with large companies facing up to $2.4 million in damages and small to medium-sized companies potentially seeing a loss of $92,000.
Creating a plan and having a well-educated team can help to prevent cyber-attacks and fix problems that arise. Being honest about cyber-attacks may help other organizations to prevent them, but many companies aren’t forthcoming with this information.
Fifty-seven percent of the organizations surveyed by the Economist Intelligence Unit said they would not report security infractions unless they were legally obligated to do so.
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