British Businesses Lost $55 Billion To Cyberattacks Over The Past Five Years

The insurance company Howden revealed that British businesses have lost around $55 billion— £44 billion— to cyberattacks during the last five years in a recent study.

According to Reuters, Howden explained that cyberattacks have cost, on average, about 1.9% of the companies’ revenues. The businesses that surpass 100 million pounds—around $125 million—in annual revenue are most likely to be targeted by malicious actors.

“Cybercrime is on the rise, with malicious actors continuing to take advantage of cybersecurity vulnerabilities, particularly as firms become ever more reliant on technology for their operations,” said Sarah Neild, head of UK cyber retail at Howden, to Reuters.

The insurance experts also shared statistics and more data related to the survey conducted by YouGov in September which considered 905 British IT Leaders.

According to Howden’s study, compromised emails were the most common cause of cyberattacks and 20% of the British companies analyzed have been victims of hackers through this method.

The second most common attack, 18% of the cases studied, was data theft. Among the main vulnerabilities, the insurance company noted that most businesses weren’t investing enough in cybersecurity and internal IT resources.

Around 60% of the businesses had deployed anti-virus software and 55% had network firewalls. Howden suggested these percentages should be higher and businesses should consider improving their cybersecurity programs.

Gen Digital Inc. recently released its Q3/2024 Threat Report revealing that “Scam-Yourself Attacks” rose 614%, data-theft malware 39%, and phishing emails 9.6%. Another recent report by BleepingComputer revealed a growing trend among hackers exploiting SVG files to bypass security systems and conduct phishing attacks.