Organisations across the UK and Ireland must take precautions to protect their systems to reduce their risk of cyber attack.
Ransomware Is a Growing Threat for UK and Ireland Organisations
The past year has seen a staggering increase in cyber attacks across the UK and Ireland. Cybercriminals are taking advantage of the increased reliance on digital services and hybrid workforces to launch more sophisticated and frequent attacks, and companies of all sizes and types are targets.
According to a new threat intelligence report, the UK has suffered the most cyber attacks of any country in Europe over the past year. Over the course of the last 12 months, the UK has accounted for 43% of the cyber attacks reported in Europe. Within the UK, the energy and financial services industries make up the most targeted sectors, receiving 32% of all attacks.
Indeed, the latest UK statistics from Comparitech show that cybercrime in the UK is not going away anytime soon, with year-on-year trends showing why organisations, more than ever, need to be on high alert.
- Over 80% of UK organisations sustained a successful attack in 2021/2022, up from 71% in the previous annual findings.
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Ransomware attacks affected 73% of UK organisations, up 15% from the previous year.
- 13% of UK organisations succumbed to paying out a ransom.
- The average cost of a ransomware attack was $1.1 million.
- The average cost of a data breach was $4.7 million, up from $3.9 million the previous year.
- 181 days was the average time required to identify a data breach, with a further 75 days needed to contain the incident.
According to Keeper’s UK Cybersecurity Census Report, the average UK business experiences 44 cyber attacks per year — more than three every month. 17% of businesses are subjected to more than 500 attacks in a single year, which is roughly two cyber attacks every working day!
Of those, the average business faces around two successful cyber attacks each year. Alarmingly, IT leaders fear the frequency of these attacks will further intensify. Almost half (46%) expect both the total number of attacks, and the number of successful attacks, to increase over the next year.
The Cost of Cyber Attacks
Organisations of all sizes are impacted across the UK and Ireland. According to Keeper’s Census Report, 35% of victims reported disruption to trading such as the ability to carry out business operations. 34% of victims experienced reputational damage due to an attack, while 31% had financial information stolen. 22% of businesses had actual money stolen, with the financial disruption totalling more than £100,000 on average. For 16% of organisations, the amount was more than £500,000.
Since the start of 2022, the media has reported on numerous cyber attacks affecting high profile companies and organisations. Here is a short rundown covering some of those impacted across the UK and Ireland.
2022 started with the infamous Russian cybercrime group Conti launching a ransomware attack on food manufacturer KP Snacks. According to a statement by KP Snacks, the attack disrupted their ability to process orders or dispatch goods, leading to supply chain issues that persisted for three months.
In March, Irish disability services provider Rehab Group was hit with a cyber attack that targeted some of its systems. The Dublin-based charity said that the perpetrators were trying to obtain service user data to delete or release it, and an investigation found that some data was accessed externally from some of the charity’s servers.
In April, UK retail chain The Works was affected by a cyber attack causing numerous stores to close temporarily. Details of the attack were not given, but it is believed to have hindered deliveries, extended online order times, and jeopardized the security of payments on their POS systems. Further investigation showed customer data was also compromised. It is thought that the attack was ransomware, however, it is unclear how much ransom was demanded and how the systems were recovered. The Works’ share price declined 10% the same day the attack was made public. Additionally, the company lost money from the stores that were unable to operate.
An IT provider to the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) suffered a ransomware attack in August which caused a major outage to NHS emergency services nationwide, including disruption to emergency prescription services, ambulance dispatching systems and the 111 non-emergency advice line.
Media group The Guardian was hit in late December by a serious IT incident believed to be a ransomware attack. The incident affected parts of the company’s technology infrastructure and staff were told to work from home.
Just two weeks later in January 2023, sportswear retailer JD Sports said it was the victim of a cyber attack that exposed the data of 10 million customers. The chain said the attack involved unauthorised access to a system that contained customer names, delivery and billing information, email addresses, phone numbers, and the last four digits of bank cards.
Most recently, UK metal engineering firm Vesuvius announced it experienced a cyber attack involving unauthorised access to their systems. The London Stock Exchange-listed company reported shutting down affected systems and launching a major investigation to identify the extent of the issue, including the impact on production and contract fulfilment.
Defending Against Cybercrime in the UK and Ireland
According to a recent data breach investigations report, 81% of all data breaches are due to weak or stolen passwords. The best way to make sure your passwords are kept secure and not vulnerable to attack is to use a strong password manager. A password manager is a software program that creates and securely stores passwords for users, allowing them to use a single master password to access the information for all their accounts. This eliminates the need for users to remember multiple passwords and reduces the dangers of weak passwords and password reuse.
Keeper provides enterprise-grade password and credential management for organisations of all sizes. Keeper’s Enterprise Password Management (EPM) and Privileged Access Management (PAM) solutions are renowned for best-in-class security features and ease of use. Keeper proudly holds the longest-standing SOC2 and ISO 27001 certifications in the industry.
Keeper is built on a foundation of zero-trust and zero-knowledge security to protect every user on every device, so users can rest assured that their passwords, as well as any other important documents and data, are kept safe and secure in their vaults.
Keeper is also highly regarded by users on G2, the world’s largest and most trusted software marketplace, as a leading password manager for both enterprise and small to mid-sized businesses. Reviewers particularly cite Keeper’s ease of use referencing its simple implementation, administration and end-user experience.
Cyber attacks have had a serious impact on organisations across the UK and Ireland in the past year. It is essential for organisations to take the necessary steps to protect their data and systems, and using a strong password manager like Keeper is a critical first step in that process. By taking the necessary precautions, organisations can reduce their risk of falling victim to a cyber attack.