44% of UK
small business are cyber crime victims
The Internet safety site Get Safe Online commissioned a report on
Internet security and small business. Researchers contacted 1,008 businesses
with 1-9 employees and questioned them about their experiences over the last
two years. The results are interesting and alarming.
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60% of
small businesses would grind to a halt if their PCs were taken down by
cyber crime or IT related issues.
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44% of
small businesses surveyed have been a victim of cyber crime, including internet
scams, identity fraud, phishing and data theft.
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Over a
third (36 percent) of micro-businesses have suffered from a computer virus.
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Nearly a
fifth (18%) have been victims of phishing, spyware or hackers in the last
two years.
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Almost a
fifth (19%) said they lost revenue as a result of downtime, the average
figure cited as £1,540. This equates to a staggering £750 million in
estimated losses across the UK micro-business population.
-
Two-thirds
(66 percent) of businesses surveyed store vital documents on their PCs and
69 per cent also store their customer details on IT equipment - less than
a third (32 percent) consider themselves to be fully up to date with
current PC/internet security issues.
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Only 1 in
20 small businesses have access to dedicated IT support, internally or
externally.
-
Sixty
percent of those surveyed said their businesses would grind to a halt if
their IT system failed.
-
Half (49%)
of small businesses are unable to track who is accessing what information
on their PCs
-
A quarter
of businesses surveyed did not have measurements in place to safeguard
their IT systems i.e. only authorised users can access them
The message of the report is that small
businesses are under prepared and extremely vulnerable to data loss and cyber
crime.
Kotarski Consulting specialises in
supporting small businesses. Our record of data recovery and malware removal is
excellent. We advise on backup strategies tailored to your needs.
Contact Nick Kotarski for information about our services.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 10 April 2008 )
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