UK Cyber attacks can be detrimental for businesses, with the average cost to remedy an attack being £21,000. UK businesses have suffered an astounding number of cyber-attacks in 2018, with most of them being targeted on small businesses.

Two-thirds of companies with 10 – 49 employees have suffered some form of cyber-attack in the past year. That amounts to roughly 130,000 businesses.

Cost of cyber-attacks

The majority of companies that are victims of cyber attacks do not live to see the end of the year. In fact, 60% of small companies go out of business within six months of a cyber attack.

For the survivors, the event is a major setback to the business. On average, such an event will set them back £65 grand. Most of it goes for salvaging damaged assets, paying financial penalties and bearing the brunt of business downtime. 

Phishing is still the biggest threat (25 per cent of all cyber-crime events). Ransomware hits hardest on the wallet and is becoming a growing problem for businesses. A ransomware attack is a malicious software that locks a device and then demands a ransom to unlock it. 

In addition to this, there are a lot of hidden costs from cyber attacks. The indirect costs that result from an attack can include lost customers and damage to the brand. There are also costs associated with the hours required to remedy the attack and the distraction a breach can cause.

All in all, the total cost of these 130,000 businesses was £13.6 billion last year alone. 

Everyone is a target

The number of cyber-attacks on small businesses is higher than its ever been in recorded history. Last year it was almost two thirds (63%), the year before – 47%, and the year before that – 55%.

The detrimental nature of cyber attacks and ransomware lies in the hackers’ accessibility to attack any business. “Criminals don’t care how big your company is, everyone is a potential victim and the cost of an attack can be devastating,” said Sonia Blizzard, managing director of Beaming.

Larger businesses are often targeted because they have more employees, which means the hackers have multiple points of entry. Employees are often a vulnerability, but corporations are aware of this and have multiple players of protection in place to limit the spread of an attack. 

Small businesses are increasingly leaning towards cloud-based solutions to access data from different locations. Cloud solutions enable employees to be more flexible and efficient but also increases the importance of securing the data when it is transported and stored.

Backup Systems are one of the UK’s leading backup companies. We provide a tailored solution, all within a main managed backup service, allowing you to create a managed backup service that suits your business needs, no matter how you grow. 

Backup Systems has helped multiple clients with ransomware attacks and ensured they did not have to pay these hackers a penny and managed to have them back up and running within a couple of hours.

Learn more about how Backup System can help your organisation by downloading our free guide below.