New research from Grant Thornton reveals that businesses in developed Western economies are leaving themselves vulnerable to data theft.
Figures from Grant Thornton’s International Business Report – a quarterly survey of 2,400 businesses in 36 countries - show that businesses in some regions, notably those in developed Western economies, take a less sophisticated approach to cybersecurity than businesses in developing economies.
The latest IBR reports a lower proportion of businesses in regions such as the EU (53%), North America (54%) and the G7 (55%) underperform in comparison to businesses in Asia Pacific (60%), Africa (64%) and ASEAN (66%). Many organisations in developed economies appear to take an underdeveloped approach to cybersecurity, meaning businesses in Western countries, including the US (54%), the UK (50%), Germany (49%) and France (40%), are less likely to assign risk profiles to their data than Thailand (78%), Malaysia (70%) and China (61%).
Richard Ratcliffe, a director at Grant Thornton in the Isle of Man, said: ‘These figures have uncovered a worrying tendency among businesses in some of the world’s largest economies. It shows that businesses in the UK and EU have not taken the right steps to identify their most valuable data and assign greater levels of protection to it. Instead, the approach seems to be to simply apply a baseline level of security to all data.
‘It is always the case that some data is more valuable, and therefore more vulnerable, than others. Organisations in some countries urgently need to recognise that a one-size-fits-all approach to cybersecurity leaves them open to hugely damaging attacks.
‘It would be a matter of concern if this trend is being mirrored in the Isle of Man and we would suggest the findings of the latest IBR acts as a wake-up call to Island businesses that they need to take cyber security seriously and ensure they are protecting data to the best possible standards.’
The IBR survey has previously found that more than one in five (21%) of businesses globally had faced a cyber attack over the year from Q3 2016. Businesses in the EU (32%), G7 (26%) and North America (24%) were more vulnerable than those in the Asia-Pacific (13%) and ASEAN (7%) regions.
Mr Ratcliffe added: ‘We know that businesses in the regions which are less likely to assign risk profiles to their data have previously been the ones who reported greater levels of cyber attacks. It is time that they realise that the current approach means that they’re often investing their resources to protect data of little value, while their most critical assets are more exposed than they should be. This is an important lesson which Isle of Man businesses would be wise to heed.’
Photo - Richard Ratcliffe, Grant Thornton Isle of Man.
