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At least 68% of Dutch businesses have insufficient cyber security. Internationally, there has been a 30% increase in the share spent on cybersecurity in the past year.
This is evident from research by research agency Forrester on behalf of insurer Hiscox. At least 5,569 professionals involved in their organization's cybersecurity were surveyed.
French the most
Last year, organizations spent 39% more on cybersecurity than the year before. In Europe, the French spend the most. They achieved an average expenditure of 2.7 million euros per organization. Dutch companies invested 18% less than French organizations.
According to Yasin Chalabi of Hiscox, this is striking because Dutch companies are at the forefront of digitalization. “In our country, we use more than twice as many company laptops and desktops than average. It is therefore important that Dutch companies realize that they too can easily become victims of cybercrime.”
More than one-third of companies in our country, from small to large and within various sectors, fell prey to cybercrime last year. For example, one in five affected companies pays a ransom after a demand. It is often the smaller, more vulnerable companies that pay the price.
While this problem is clearly greater in the Netherlands than in other countries, Dutch authorities do not see the urgency as such. Only half of Dutch companies indicate that cybersecurity is a top priority for management. This compares to 63% in the entire research group.
The research assesses companies on their 'Cyber Readiness' based on various factors in the areas of strategy, technology, resources and processes. Among small companies with up to 10 employees, even 82% are unable to withstand attacks. This means that the Netherlands scores the worst internationally.
To invest
Fortunately, there are plenty of steps for starting and smaller companies to take to reduce the risk of a cyber attack. That starts with identifying all devices in the organization. Chalabi: “Make external backups and regularly perform a security assessment. Not only IT professionals, but also the rest of the organization has an important role to play as a 'human firewall'.' Because human action comes to the fore in two-thirds (67%) of the cyber claims that Hiscox receives. This ranges from accidentally opening a phishing email to transferring a sum of money on behalf of someone you think is the CEO. You cannot prevent something like this 100%, but in addition to good insurance, investing in regular employee training is very valuable.”
Is your organization well (enough) secured? And are you aware of the (online) risks? To prevent your company or organization from becoming a victim of cybercrime, you can take various steps to ensure proper security. For more information about the security of your organization, please contact us.
Source: ICT magazine
