Companies and the public could do more for cyber security
Published: Wednesday, Nov 13th 2024, 12:30
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In the last three years, four percent of SMEs and IT service providers in Switzerland and five percent of the population have fallen victim to a cyberattack. This is according to the Cyber Study 2024 published on Wednesday.
Extrapolated to the whole of Switzerland, this would mean 24,000 affected companies, according to a press release on the study by the Yougov research institute. For 73 percent of those affected, this resulted in considerable financial damage.
While 68 percent of the IT service providers surveyed considered the risk of a cyberattack to be high or very high, more than half of the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) surveyed rated the risk of a serious attack as low.
This false sense of security could have serious consequences for companies if they do not take action quickly. It is also worrying that four out of ten companies have no emergency plan or business continuity strategy in the event of a serious cyberattack.
There is also a need for optimization among the general population when it comes to cyber security awareness. Around half of those surveyed rated the cyber security of their own household as high. At the same time, more than a third of respondents use the same password for different services, and many do not initiate updates promptly.
The study was conducted with 2174 online interviews. It was commissioned by Digitalswitzerland, the Mobiliar insurance company, the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland, the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences, the Swiss Digital Security Alliance and the Swiss Internet Security Alliance.
©Keystone/SDA
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