Report finds Phishing is still a major issue for British businesses
Blog|by Leanne Bevan|9 May 2022
London, UK - April 2022, ESET, a global leader in cyber security, has conducted a study into the state of cyber security for businesses in the United Kingdom, analysing historic data to discover how the rates of cyber security incidents are changing. The analysis also looks to uncover which industries are targeted the most and which cyber incidents are most common amongst UK businesses.
The research revealed that it's the media sector which has been hit the hardest by cybercrime with 39 reported incidents, followed by online technology and telecoms and retail and manufacturing.
Out of all the incidents reported, phishing was by far the biggest incident type with 2,694 cases reported, which was 1,350 more than unauthorised access in second place.
The most common types of cyber security incidents since Q1 2019/2020
How have cyber security incidents increased?
Q2 of 2020/21 saw the highest number of cyber security incidents with 737, possibly due to people working online from home due to COVID restrictions and a number of experts reporting a 105% increase in ransomware attacks in 2021.
The sectors with the highest proportion of cyber incidents
While it had a relatively low number of data security incidents overall, the Media sector had the highest share of cyber incidents.
Retail and Manufacture had the highest number of cyber incidents overall at 943, followed by General Business (858) and Finance, Insurance and Credit (788). Cyber security comes in all different forms, from a hacker simply guessing your passwords to your personal belongings such as a laptop or mobile phone being stolen, but which types of cyber security incidents are the most common?
When looking at cyber incidents overall, ‘Data emailed to incorrect recipient’ is the most common with 3,719 occurrences since Q1 of 2019/20. ‘Data posted or faxed to incorrect recipient’ and ‘Loss/theft of paperwork or data left in insecure location’ followed by 2,806 and 1,931 occurrences respectively.
Jake Moore, Global Cyber Security Advisor at ESET, commented on the findings: “Clever phishing attempts are increasing and can even deceive those who are aware of them. Reading something which applies pressure or urgency to verify or hand over information, can easily make people overlook the scam, which often shows no obvious or immediate clues. Verifying authentic emails has never been more important but remains your best bet in beating the fraudsters. Criminals continue to use emails as their number one attack vector of choice in the hope that they can install malware or take over email accounts, masquerading as someone is known to the victim to siphon off sensitive information. Organisations must ensure they are prepared for phishing emails by having robust controls in places such as spam filters and multi-factor authentication, however, user awareness and training remain the best defence against these increasing attacks.”
Find out more
If you're looking for more information about how ESET can protect you against phishing incidents, please head to our ESET page, or fill out the form below.
Contact Grey Matter
If you have any questions or want some extra information, complete the form below and one of the team will be in touch ASAP. If you have a specific use case, please let us know and we'll help you find the right solution faster.
By submitting this form you are agreeing to our Privacy Policy and Website Terms of Use.
Leanne Bevan
Related News
Intel oneAPI 2024.1 A Milestone Release
What’s new in Intel oneAPI 2024.1 The 2024.1 release of Intel® Software Development Tools marks a major milestone for developers AND the entire software industry: the Intel® oneAPI DPC++/C++ Compiler has become the first compiler to fully support the SYCL...
ISV Partner Day Shortlisted for CRN Sales & Marketing Award
ISV Partner Day has been shortlisted for "Best Customer Event" at the CRN Sales & Marketing Awards
Microsoft 365 and Azure Security Tools: Microsoft Intune
In the second video in our series of short videos discussing Microsoft 365 and Azure security tools and concepts, our Microsoft experts cover off all you need to know about Microsoft Intune! Intune is a robust cloud-based solution to safeguard...
Women in Tech: A New Era | Roundtable
Fri 21 June 2024 5:00 pm - 11:30 pm BST
Get ready to shake it off (and network like nobody’s watching) because we’re hosting an exciting exclusive Women in Tech event with ESET that you won’t want to miss out on. Join us and share feedback, experiences and insights with...