GovNewsDirect recently released new findings which show that humans are to blame for more than half of all data breaches in the UK’s public sector.
The biggest issue seems to be with data ownership: more than 80 per cent of respondents claimed to be ‘data owners’, who can authorise or block access to certain data, but 19 per cent of them didn’t know how many other data owners existed within their organisation.
Head of cyber security at QA, Richard Beck, finds little surprise in the fact that humans are behind half of all data breaches. “Whether motivated by politics, financial gain, or because organisations haven’t made it difficult for attackers, any online business can be victimised,” he comments on the news.
“Awareness of the risk is growing, but as cyber security attacks become more sophisticated, targeted and persistent, organisations must ensure that employees are fully up to date with three things. “
The three things he believes are key to keeping safe online are: timely knowledge of the threats, minimising risk of falling foul of the threats, and a disaster plan, if the worst case scenario does happen.
“The majority of IT security incidents are down to human error, so educating employees will significantly reduce the chances and minimise the impact of your business becoming a victim of cyber-crime. Educating employees will significantly reduce the chances and minimise the impact of your business becoming a victim of cyber-crime,” he concludes.
As businesses turn to the digital environment, a cyber-attack grows more costly.
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