The minister for artificial intelligence (AI) has urged British businesses to shore up their cyber attack defences as new government data reveals that three quarters of medium and large sized businesses were hit by a cyber incident in the past year.
Nearly 80 per cent of high-income charities also faced cyber security breaches in the same period, amid the rising threat of so-called bad actors increasingly using AI to steal sensitive information and hold companies to ransom.
Viscount Camrose, who also oversees cyber, said: “I am calling on organisations of all sizes to step up their cyber security plans to guard against threats, protect their customers and workforce, and our wider economy.
“Our cyber sector continues to generate unprecedented employment and business opportunities, but we know that there are still a host of challenges and risks that we cannot ignore.”
The average total cost of a security incident for an organisation was £7,187, although the real figure is expected to be much higher as most organisations do not actively monitor the financial cost of cyber security breaches.
Cyber attacks on businesses have risen for the fourth year in a row, according to insurance firm Hiscox.
And research from Microsoft released this week, found that only 13 per cent of UK businesses were found to be described as ‘resilient’ to cyber crime. Nearly half of UK organisations are ‘vulnerable’ to cyber attacks, while a further 39 per cent are ‘at high risk’.
“We are working shoulder to shoulder with industry to ensure organisations have a robust plan of action to tackle these threats head-on,” Viscount Camrose added.
The government recently introduced the Cyber Governance Code of Practice, developed alongside the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). The code aims to help business leaders build stronger cyber protections and prepare response and recovery plans following cyber attacks.
It comes as over two-thirds of top cyber security execs think that the UK needs stronger defences against cyber attacks if it is to become a global artificial intelligence (AI) leader, according to the Microsoft study, carried out by Dr Chris Brauer of Goldsmiths University.
Paul Kelly, director of the security business group at Microsoft UK said: “Cyber criminals, some armed with the resources of a nation state, are ‘tooling up’ with AI to increase the sophistication and intensity of their attacks.
“AI has the potential to make your business and data more secure, but also, if a cyber attack were to occur, to lessen the impact on your bottom line.”