Half of German, UK and US businesses unprepared for cyber attack
Some 53% of businesses in the UK, US and Germany are unprepared for a cyber attack, according to insurer Hiscox's Cyber Readiness Report 2017. The study showed British firms were the least likely to have experienced a cyber attack in the last year, with 45% of participants saying they had no incidents in 2016. However, 35% of UK businesses admitted they didn't change anything following a cybersecurity incident. US companies were shown to be the most prepared, but were also targeted more frequently than others, with 72% reporting an attack. Meanwhile German firms were branded "cyber novices", with 39% of low-ranked firms based in country.
More than half of businesses in the UK, US and Germany aren’t fully prepared to deal with a cyber attack

More than half of businesses (53 per cent) in the UK, US and Germany aren’t fully prepared to deal with cyber attacks, according to a new study of 3,000 companies.

Specialist insurer Hiscox’s cyber report – which assessed firms on strategy, resourcing, technology and process – found that UK firms are least likely to have experienced a cyber attack in the past year (45 per cent). But more than a third (35 per cent) said they haven’t changed anything following a cyber security incident.

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US firms were found to be the most prepared to deal with a cyber attack. However, larger US firms were also targeted more often than others with 72 per cent experiencing an attack in the past 12 months and nearly half (47 per cent) of all US firms experiencing two or more.

German companies were branded “cyber novices” in the study as the made up the biggest group of bottom-ranked firms (39 per cent of the total).

Firms in the three countries are ramping up their security spending. The study pointed out that a majority of cyber security budgets (59 per cent) are set to increase by five per cent or more over the coming 12 months while one in five firms (21 per cent) will lift spending by a double-digit amount.

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Businesses also spent more money on getting new technologies to prepare themselves against cyber crimes. Around a quarter of firms that experienced a cyber attack responded by increasing their spending on prevention or detection technologies (24 per cent and 23 per cent respectively).

Meanwhile, a cyber risk study by Deloitte published yesterday found that only five per cent of FTSE companies have cyber security expertise on the board.