Umbrella company IT contractors could find themselves more in demand after Symantec revealed that global cybercrime is costing businesses £71.6 billion a year.
The security specialist, which makes the Norton antivirus software, also revealed that when you factor in the time businesses lose to cybercrime, the total more than doubles to £172 billion.
Symantec’s research also discovered that 14 incidents of cybercrime occur every second and 69% of adults have been victims.
Adam Palmer, the lead cyber security advisor for Norton, explained that adults are now three times more likely to be a victim of online crime than offline crime. Despite these worrying statistics, over 66% of respondents believe they are more likely to be a victim of physical world crime than cybercrime in the coming 12 months.
According to KPMG, the majority of UK companies have not taken out insurance against e-crime even though there has been an increase in the number of threats against large organisations recently.
Only 27% of senior security decision makers say their organisation has definitely got insurance to cover them in the event that hackers interrupt business. The same percentage said their company was insured against data loss resulting from e-crime.
41% of companies admit that their lack of understanding of possible areas of vulnerability leaves them open to attack. 58% of CISOs have problems prioritising the detection of e-crime incidents and 54% experience problems investigating hacking incidents.
Although 65% of organisations outsource and 29% use cloud computing, more than two thirds agree that these activities pose a data security risk. Smart phones, tablets and using the same device for work and personal use were also identified as the possible cause of data security problems.
Malcolm Marshall from KPMG said companies should be acutely aware of the risks of e-crime especially after high-profile attacks occurred against large organisations earlier this year. A lot of businesses do not understand that insurance is available and others are unsure whether their current policies are effective and whether insurance companies will pay out if they lodge an e-crime claim.
© 2011 All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
Image: Internet Riot Police by ssoosay
