With Cyber Attack Rates Persistent for Second Year, 88 Percent of UK Organisations Expect to be Targeted in Next 12 Months

Thirty-one percent of organisations admit to data loss as a result of cyber attacks in 2016

Newly released research from Tenable Network Security, Inc., a global leader transforming security technology for the business needs of tomorrow, revealed that 65 percent of responding UK organisations were victims of a cyber attack in 2016, essentially unchanged from the previous year.

Many information security professionals now seem resigned to the idea that their organisations will be the target of a cyber attack. Eighty-eight percent of respondents said they expect their organisations will be targeted in the next 12 months, up 12 percent from 2015. 

“Adopting the mindset that ‘this network will be breached’ is critical in implementing effective security measures,” said Gavin Millard, technical director EMEA, Tenable Network Security. “Periodic active scanning — even if frequent — is no longer enough. The modern connected business needs the comprehensive visibility and context provided by truly continuous monitoring of their IT environments to identify weaknesses and decrease the probability of a successful cyber attack.”

Of those organisations that suffered a cyber attack in the last 12 months, 31 percent admit to data loss as a direct result. The severity of the compromises remained consistent over the last year, with roughly eight percent of the reported attacks leading to significant data loss.

“The fact that cyber attack rates are relatively consistent year over year is worrying, but not unexpected. The real concern is that these attacks continue to be successful at compromising and exfiltrating sensitive data,” said Millard. “No IT infrastructure is impenetrable, but an effective way for organisations to increase the odds of detecting a compromise before it becomes a breach is to eliminate the blind spots in their security posture through continuous monitoring for vulnerabilities and threats.”

To find out more about how comprehensive solutions from Tenable give organisations the continuous visibility and critical context needed to protect their networks, visit tenable.com/solutions/security-assurance.