Cyber attacks aimed at UK businesses rocket by more than 50% in a year to 65,000 PER FIRM

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The number of cyber attacks targeting UK-based businesses increased by more than half in the second quarter of 2017, according to a new report.

Through analysis of real-time attacks, business internet service provider Beaming calculated that firms were, on average, subjected to almost 65,000 internet-borne assaults each in the three months, an increase of 52 per cent on the first quarter.

The number of cyber attacks targeting UK-based businesses increased by more than half in the second quarter of 2017

While two-thirds of attacks hitting corporate firewalls targeted connected devices such as networked security cameras and building control systems, there was a substantial increase in attempts to infiltrate company databases, it said.

On average, each UK business experienced 105 attempts to take control of their database applications every day in the second quarter, compared with 14 in the first.

Meanwhile, one in three small to medium-sized enterprise owners believe that a cyber attack on their business is a matter of ‘when’ not ‘if’, according to a survey of 500 firms by insurer PolicyBee.

Bosses at nearly one in five firms said that the threat of cyber crime kept them awake at night.