Small businesses victims of cyber crime

Published on 28 Jun 2007

Almost half of small businesses are victims of cyber crime according to a survey by Get Safe Online, a government funded internet safety initiative.

The survey found that 95% of small businesses do not have access to dedicated IT support but 60% of those said that their business would grind to a halt if their PC's were taken down due to an IT problem or cyber attack.

Other headline figures include:

19% said they lost an average of £1,540 due to downtime.
only 32% consider themselves up to date with current PC/internet security issues
26% of businesses did not have measurements in place to safeguard their IT systems

Tony Neate, managing director of Get Safe Online, commented,

"As cyber crime becomes more sophisticated, basic measures aren't enough on their own. Businesses also must look at access control, data encryption and secure password practices, as well as looking at other measures such as staff training."

You can see the full resuls of the survey at: www.getsafeonline.org