2010 Information Security Breaches Survey from Infosecurity Europe and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP shows an increased vulnerability of UK companies and public sector organisations to new cyber attacks. 

The rate of adoption of newer technologies has accelerated in the UK over the last two years and most respondents (85%) now use wireless networking, remote access and VoIP.  The number of organisations that allow staff remote access to their IT systems has also increased; 9 out of 10 of the large companies are now doing this.

Companies tend to use external providers to host applications on their behalf; Software as a Service and cloud computing are now used by over 75% of the organisations polled.  As bespoke in-house systems are being replaced by more standardised, shared services, there is an explosion of new cyber attacks.  Hacking and “denial of service” attacks have doubled since 2008, with 61% of large organisations having detected a significant attempt to break into their network in 2009.  One in eight organisations had confirmed un-authorised access to their systems in 2009, and it is likely that many more remained un-detected.  A quarter of large organisations have suffered a “denial of service” attack in the last year, more than double as in 2008.

When outsourcing IT services, few companies are taking enough care to encrypt their data or ensure that their services are not vulnerable to attack.  According to Chris Potter of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, only 17% of those with highly confidential data at external providers ensure that their data is encrypted.

Due to security issues and fear of data leakage, the trend, established between 2006 and 2008, of allowing more staff to access the Internet has been reversed. Nearly half of large organisations now restrict which staff can access the Internet, while less than a third did so in 2008.  While the use of software to block access to inappropriate websites is only slightly increased, organisations are now one and a half times more likely to monitor postings to social networking sites than 2 years ago.

Story link: http://www.wired-gov.net/wg/wg-news-1.nsf/lfi/DNWA-856EK5