Small businesses were least likely to take precautions against the Russian Cyber threat.

New research from Databarracks has revealed that 58% of small companies (less than 50 employees) were not taking any precautions against a possible Russian cyber attack.

The findings are from Databarracks’ 2022 Data Health Check survey of 400 IT decision makers. This year’s survey focused on themes of Ransomware, Cyber, Backup, Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity.

Barnaby Mote, Managing Director of Databarracks, commented “The current risk of cyber attack is high. All organisations, regardless of size, should be taking extra precautions to protect their data.”

By comparison, only 19% of large organisations (500+ employees) surveyed said they weren’t taking any precautions.

“The most common mitigations, across all sizes of organisation were: implement or update antivirus software (40%), implement or update user access controls (35%) and increased frequency of patching and updates (34%).”

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Mote continued “Cyber attacks on larger organisations make headlines. This can give the impression that they’re not happening elsewhere, but smaller organisations also suffer an enormous volume of attacks.

“Smaller organisations don’t have dedicated cyber security teams like enterprises but that doesn’t mean they are defenceless.

“The NCSC has issued official guidance on steps to take when cyber threat is heightened. The advice includes logging and monitoring, reviewing backups, reviewing incident plans, checking internet footprint and phishing response, among others.

“Focus on getting the basics of cyber security right; implementing Multi-Factor Authentication, making sure systems are kept up to date and making sure you have reliable off-site backups. Getting these things right makes a big difference in your overall resilience.

“Organisations should also consider the Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials PLUS Certification. Cyber Essentials helps organisations set solid, foundational cyber security controls, and it is especially suitable for smaller businesses. The Cyber Essentials PLUS Certification includes the additional benefit of having a qualified assessor carry out an audit of those controls to demonstrate your organisation’s resilience.”

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