UK small businesses are underestimating the impact a cyber attack could have on their reputation and must take steps to protect it, according to the findings of the Small Business Reputation and the Cyber Risk report, by the Government’s Cyber Streetwise campaign and KPMG.
In the past few years there has been a rapid expansion in the development and adoption of new communications technologies which continue to transform Government, business and the ways in which we interact with each other. Cyber crime undermines confidence in our communications technology and online economy. There were an estimated 5.1m incidents of fraud and 2.5m incidents falling under the Computer Misuse Act recorded last year (ONS, 2015)1. Add in recent high profile hacking cases and the issue of cyber security is now more important than ever.
But is it front of mind for small businesses? Cyber Streetwise and KPMG surveyed 1,000 small businesses and 1,000 consumers across the UK to assess how small businesses feel about cyber security, how they are protecting themselves and the impact of a cyber breach on their reputation.
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