Survey Finds Irish SMBs Would Survive for Less than 5 days Following a Successful Cyberattack

Today we release further findings from our recently commissioned survey on cyber security awareness which found that Irish SMB owners believe that their business would only survive for just 4.8 days on average without any access to their systems or data following a successful cyberattack!

Furthermore, business owners believe it would take longer than this (5.6 days on average) to get all of their systems back up and running in the event of such a cyberattack. Despite these findings, 37% of Irish SMBs admitted they don’t have an effective disaster recovery plan in place.

The survey conducted by Censuswide - included the views of more than 200 Irish business owners in firms of up to 150 employees.

The research also found that 35% of Irish small and medium-sized businesses would not immediately notify all affected customers, employees, and relevant parties about a security data breach.

As most Irish employees continue to work remotely, 63% of business owners said that some of their employees are less thorough about cybersecurity when working from home. Furthermore, 42% revealed that they have not carried out a full security audit since the pandemic started more than 18 months ago.

Despite the ongoing risks, only 5% of Irish SMBs provide cyber security training to their employees at least once a quarter.

Trevor Coyle, CTO, Typetec, commented on the findings:

“There is no doubt that cyberattacks and data breaches have become more widespread and disruptive since the start of the pandemic. Cyber criminals are using increasingly sophisticated methods to penetrate increasingly distributed working environments.

“The consequences of a successful cyberattack can be devastating. Business owners evidently understand how quickly their businesses can fail without any access to their systems or data. However, many are still failing to take the proactive steps needed to help combat these growing threat levels.

“Our survey has revealed that security audits and regular staff training are being neglected, with a significant minority of small and medium-sized businesses not even having an effective disaster recovery plan in place.

“We would urge businesses of all sizes to put the necessary security procedures and processes in place to protect their businesses, employees and customers. It’s evident that without industry- leading expertise to assist business owners with their ongoing security battle, they become easy prey for cyber criminals.

It’s straightforward to calculate the financial cost of a cyberattack but how do you measure the loss of reputation and brand recognition, post breach. Businesses need to communicate immediately with all affected parties, should a data breach happen. We all need to play our part in this growing battle against cybercrime.”

If you are concerned about the security posture of your business, you can reach out to Typetec by contacting us here to arrange a consultation with us.