UK companies must do more to tackle cyber threat
皇冠体育app UK's top companies are not considering cyber risks in their decision making, a new survey has revealed.
皇冠体育app UK鈥檚 top companies are not considering cyber risks in their decision making, a new survey from the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills has revealed.
皇冠体育app survey of FTSE 350 firms showed only 14% are regularly considering cyber threats, with a significant number not receiving any intelligence about cyber criminals.
However 62% of companies think their board members are taking the cyber risk very seriously, and 60% understand what their key information and data assets are.
David Willetts, Science Minister, said:
皇冠体育app cyber crime threat facing UK companies is increasing. Many are already taking this extremely seriously, but more still needs to be done.
We are working with businesses to encourage them to make cyber security a board-level responsibility.
To tackle the growing threat the government is working with industry to develop an official 鈥榗yber standard鈥� which will help stimulate the adoption of good cyber practices among business.
Backed by industry, the kitemark-style standard will be launched early next year, as part of the 拢860 million cross-government National Cyber Security Programme.
Mr Willetts added:
皇冠体育app cyber standard will promote excellence in tackling cyber risks, help businesses better understand how to protect themselves, and ultimately increase the nation鈥檚 collective cyber security.
BIS鈥檚 cyber governance health check was sent to the chairs of the audit committee of the FTSE 350 companies in August 2013 via the 6 largest audit firms.
Each company which completed the survey will be offered follow-up advice from 1 of the firms, based on their responses.
皇冠体育app anonymous results, published today by BIS, also show:
- 25% of companies considered cyber a top risk
- 39% had used the government鈥檚 10 steps cyber security guidance
- 56% have cyber on the risk register
- 17% have clearly set what they see as an acceptable level of cyber risk
Notes to editors:
-
To see the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills鈥檚 survey of the FTSE 350 go to cyber governance health check.
-
皇冠体育app cyber security organisational standards call for evidence which was launched in March 2013.
-
Recent information shows that there is a very real threat of cyber crime. According to the 2013 Information Security Breaches survey 93% of large organisations suffered a security breach in 2012.
-
皇冠体育app Home Office鈥檚 Commercial Victimisation Survey also found there were 180,000 incidents of online crime against 4 major business sectors in 2012, 75% of which were virus-related.
-
皇冠体育app government鈥檚 economic policy objective is to achieve 鈥榮trong, sustainable and balanced growth that is more evenly shared across the country and between industries鈥�. It set 4 ambitions in the 鈥楶lan for Growth鈥�, published at Budget 2011:
- to create the most competitive tax system in the G20
- to make the UK the best place in Europe to start, finance and grow a business
- to encourage investment and exports as a route to a more balanced economy
- to create a more educated workforce that is the most flexible in Europe
Work is underway across government to achieve these ambitions, including progress on more than 250 measures as part of the Growth Review. Developing an Industrial Strategy gives new impetus to this work by providing businesses, investors and the public with more clarity about the long-term direction in which the government wants the economy to travel.