Majority of firms neglecting cyber security, study says
Nearly three-quarters of UK firms (74 per cent) say they are not doing anywhere near enough to protect themselves against cyber attacks and data breaches, according to a new study.
And that’s not because they’re not aware that cyber crime is a growing problem - it’s because they don’t have the proper IT resources to manage online risks, the research by Office Depot found.
A massive 81 per cent of the companies polled said they would definitely benefit by having more time and resources to address such risks.
Office Depot said that with four in every five FTSE 100 companies falling victim to a malicious domain registration in the second quarter of 2016, concerns about cyber crime are not unfounded.
IT professionals said too much of their time is spent dealing with ‘low-level problems like fixing printing equipment, doing document recovery and general troubleshooting, meaning that insufficient time is devoted to more complex tasks such as data security.
Office Depot said giving low-level IT tasks to senior professionals is costing businesses more than £4.2 billion every year.
Rob Jones, head of managed print services at Office Depot, said: “Empowering senior IT staff to address the complex challenges posed by cybersecurity threats and legislation surrounding data protection must be a priority for businesses. Delegating and outsourcing low-level tasks such as management of a firm’s printing function or hardware maintenance is essential to free up time for skilled IT staff to address these risks.
“Intelligent outsourcing and procurement has numerous benefits. Time is money, and technology specialists should be encouraged to complete higher-value tasks. For business leaders, the financial benefits of outsourcing and the potentially catastrophic consequences of a cyber-attack or data breach must act as a call to action to devote greater resource to information security.”
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