Cyber crime costs Irish organizations average of 240,000 euros each year: Ward Solutions

Surveyed IT professionals in Ireland report that their organizations are spending an average of 240,000 euros annually on prevention, response and damages caused by hacking, identity theft, malicious software and other forms of cyber crime, Ward Solutions reports.

“The 240,000 euros average yearly spend on cyber security highlights the growing threat of cyber crime and the huge financial impact it has on Irish organizations,” Pat Larkin, CEO of Ward Solutions, says in statement Thursday from the company, Ireland’s leading information security provider.

“The results mirror our experience with IT security over the past few years, where we have seen IT professionals spend more time and money in response to cyber crime,” Larkin says of the findings, which reflect input from 263 IT professionals.

Of the IT professionals taking part in the survey – commissioned by Ward Solutions and carried out by TechPro magazine throughout the month of May – only 35% say they are “very confident” that their data would be secure when using online public services, such as sharing motor tax or revenue information.

Citing the lack of confidence, “recent highly publicized data breaches and hacking scandals are likely the cause of this, and rightly so,” Larkin says. “When it comes to information security in public or private service, trust needs to be earned and maintained.”

Another worrying trend is the “astounding volume” of respondents who blend access to work and personal social media accounts, such as Facebook and Twitter, on the same personal device, with 70% of respondents reporting they do so.

“This poses new risks and challenges for organizations and in our experience, it is paramount that the users’ identity, as well as the device in use, are both secure in order to protect the organization,” Larkin emphasizes.

Other survey findings include the following:

• damage to reputation and brand is the highest concern, cited by three-quarters of respondents, and ahead of loss of revenue, loss of customers, and financial fraud;

• 48% of polled organizations have experienced personalized spear phishing attacks;

• 8% of those phishing attacks have been successful; and

• only 25% of employees say they are “very confident” that information (work and personal social media accounts) would be recoverable in the event of a security breach.

“What we are seeing is a trend of constant fire-fighting, which is a drain on resources and adding no real value to organizations,” Larkin says in the statement. “It shouldn’t be about throwing money and internal resources at the problem and hoping it goes away. Irish organizations need to be much more proactive and clever about dealing with the growing cyber security threat.”