The latest Sophos Threat Report has been released, and it paints a pretty grim picture for US and UK businesses preparing for potential cyber-attacks in 2020.
The annual Sophos Threat Report details the cyber-security challenges that global companies will face in the coming year and acts as a barometer for how prepared our businesses are for current and emerging threats. In today's increasingly connected world, poor cyber-security preparation poses a major risk to a company's profitability and productivity.
If the latest report is anything to go by, UK businesses have a long way to go if they want to be prepared for 2020 cyber-threats. The major threats highlighted in this year's report include the ongoing battle against ransomware, the rise of yet more mobile malware that could put company phones and employees at risk, and some of the major security missteps that can be made with cloud security misconfiguration.
A full two thirds of those surveyed for the report believe that their company's leadership is investing its resources in the wrong areas of IT security, and a whopping 91% of respondents felt they needed more cyber-security training. Around 30% of the companies surveyed didn't have a tried-and-tested IT security plan in place for what to do in the event of a security breach, ransomware attack, or other cyber threat.
Over half of the IT decision-makers surveyed admitted that they had been breached within the last 12 months, and the rate of breaches and targeted cyber-attacks is expected to rise in 2020. Most companies now lose around one working day per month to cyber-breaches, and about 24% of those surveyed believe their organisation doesn't have the resources in place to deal with one.
The report paints a pretty comprehensive picture of UK cyber-security challenges for the upcoming year, and highlights some major threats that firms may not even know they need to prepare for. Ransomware has begun targeting large-scale attacks, and misconfigured cloud services have already led to some serious breaches of personal data under GDPR this year that could prove costly for a business in 2020.
Source: Sophos Threat Report
