NEWS
Stolen credentials the leading cause of cyberbreaches in 2023
Stolen credentials through phishing attacks were the most common cause of cyberbreaches among UK businesses last year , a new study has revealed .
Cybersecurity firm IDEE commissioned an independent survey of more than 500 IT and cybersecurity professionals within UK businesses . It found that 61 % of businesses experienced a cyberbreach in 2023 , with 25 % suffering three or more .
When asked to name the cause or causes of their most recent breach , 35 % said it was the result of stolen credentials ( passwords and tokens ) through phishing attacks , making it the most common reason . The next most frequently selected factor with 29 % was ‘ a vulnerability that was not patched by their cybersecurity solution ’.
The data also raises questions about the efficacy of passwordbased Multi-Factor Authentication ( MFA ) solutions , with 23 % indicating that their MFA solution was bypassed or compromised in their latest breach . The same number ( 23 %) suffered a breach due to a backdoor attack ( malware that sidesteps authentication procedures to gain access ).
Al Lakhani , CEO of IDEE , said : “ The data perfectly encapsulates the fundamental flaw behind so many MFA solutions : they are password reliant .
“ The cyber industry ’ s ‘ best ’ solutions in recent years have tried to bolster security with additional authentication factors like OTPs , push notifications or QR codes , but these methods remain tethered to centrally stored passwords and are therefore susceptible to phishing attacks .”
The cost of Internet failures to UK businesses
UK businesses lost over 50 million hours and £ 3.7 billion due to Internet failures in 2023 , according to a new report from Beaming , a specialist business ISP . Reliance on connectivity for trading and operational activities has increased among businesses in the last five years , and the cost of missed sales , lost productivity and other disruptions due to downtime has risen by 400 %.
Beaming ’ s report – The Cost of Downtime : The Impact of Outages on UK Businesses in 2023 – shares its analysis of a Censuswide survey of businesses using connectivity from various Internet service providers and advice to help companies reduce downtime levels and costs . The report reveals that cumulatively , UK businesses experienced 8.8 million Internet failures and 50.5 million hours of disruptive downtime in 2023 , where the ability to trade or access vital services was impaired .
The amount of time businesses lost to connectivity failures in 2023 was a fifth lower than in 2018 when previous Beaming research found that firms lost 60 million hours to downtime . However , the cost of that downtime has increased fivefold : from £ 742 million in 2018 to £ 3.7 billion in 2023 .
Heightened dependence on connectivity for communication , e-commerce and access to cloud applications means 15 % of UK businesses , some 850,000 nationwide , would now start losing money the moment their connectivity fails . This is 81,000 more firms than five years ago .
During eight-hour Internet outages – a standard working day – 39 % of businesses now would lose money . This compares to 34 % at the end of 2018 and represents an increase of 240,000 companies nationwide .
10 www . intelligentfin . tech