Cybercrime – the biggest threat to business

The Cyber threat to businesses has exploded in recent years, with small and mid-sized organisations now most at risk.

Accelerated by Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine, threats such as ransomware, fraud, extortion, and data theft all form part of a global Cybercrime Pandemic generating an estimated $6 Trillion per year in 2021 and expected to increase to over $11 Trillion by 2025.

As the number of attackers dramatically increases, and they shift away from larger enterprises towards less secure and more exposed smaller businesses – which make up over 95% of all businesses across the world – cyber threat has now been listed as the number one Risk to global business (Allianz Risk Barometer 2022)

To put the scale of the significance of the threat of cyber-attack into context, if Cybercrime were a country, it would have the world’s 3rd largest economy!

Channel 4’s current TV drama, The Undeclared War, whilst fiction, highlights the reliance we all have on technology and what the devastating consequences could be without appropriate protection. Although this looks at a national/global scale, the same risk applies to small businesses too.

The time for reliance on traditional, legacy security tools designed over 25 years ago has long passed. Boards and business Leaders urgently need a practical, affordable, easy to use and continuous approach to Cyber Risk Management - built for today’s threats, using the same tools and techniques as today’s attackers - to confidently address the growing Cyber Threat.

As a firm we partner with a provider who can assess your business risk by looking at a number of different factors and we would encourage all business owners to do the same. Below are just some of the areas business owners need to consider:

See What Attackers See

• See, understand, and reduce cyber risk exposure, using the same tools and techniques attackers use
• Focus on the areas that actually expose your business
• Continuously monitor and test your systems

Understand that your people are your biggest risk, and you must continuously train and support them to ensure that they don’t inadvertently expose your business.