UK businesses: growth in cyber incidents and security budget challenges

UK businesses are facing a growing challenge: the average number of cyber incidents suffered has increased by 25% compared to the previous year, reaching an average of 30 incidents over 12 months. Despite investing considerable sums, such as over £40,000 per year in cyber protection, 27% of UK organizations believe their security budget is insufficient to ensure comprehensive protection against increasingly prevalent threats. In addition to spending on vulnerability assessments and penetration testing, companies are now also faced with the growing cost of cyber insurance, which has increased by 70% in the last 2 years.

Blind spots in enterprise IT strategies due to limited budgets

Many business areas, such as cleanup activities and energy expenses, are experiencing increased costs. This has caused available cybersecurity budgets to be limited, creating blind spots in the strategies adopted by UK businesses. Only 37% of companies say they have cybersecurity integrated into all business processes and functions, while 14% address security issues only on an ad hoc or as-needed basis. The COVID-19 pandemic has also forced 41% of organizations to sacrifice cybersecurity to preserve other business operations.

Factors that contribute to cybersecurity problems

The recent report from iomart and Oxford Economics highlights various factors that impact organizations' ability to adequately protect themselves. Rising energy and IT insurance costs, shortages of skilled workers and employee burnout are just some of the challenges businesses face in this field. These factors undermine confidence in companies' ability to effectively protect themselves from the ever-growing threat of cybercrime.

Role of new technologies in the cybersecurity of the future

Despite the current difficulties, companies maintain an optimistic view of technological progress. 38% of UK businesses expect AI and machine learning to play an increasingly important role in cybersecurity over the next 2 years. Most importantly, these new technologies could be used to improve email screening (78%) and contextual data analysis (69%). The State of Cyber Security in the UK 2023 report can be requested on the iomart official website .