Almost 90,000 Irish SMEs have had data stolen in the last year, new figures show.
According to a survey released by Datapac, 31 per cent of SMEs in Ireland have had data stolen in the last 12 months. Meanwhile, 41 per cent have permanently lost critical data within the same timeframe.
Of the 150 businesses surveyed, 37 per cent experienced a known cyberattack in the last year.
Furthermore, just five per cent of SMEs said they back up their data in real-time while 72 per cent said their data backup frequency is once per week or less.
Commenting on the survey results, Karen O’Connor, general manager at Datapac said:
“Our survey has highlighted the unprecedented scale of cybercrime for small and medium-sized businesses in Ireland today.
“The vast majority of business owners are concerned about being a cybercrime target, yet many still don’t seem to be taking the necessary steps to improve their protection.
“While threat detection and prevention are important parts of the cybersecurity puzzle, they don’t solve it alone. Data backup is a vital component and one that shouldn’t be overlooked.
“With almost three quarters of firms only backing up their data weekly or even less, this presents a huge challenge for businesses to maintain continuity after an incident.
“In the likely event of a cyberattack, a robust backup and business continuity solution is the last line of defence and enables most businesses to recover quickly from business-critical data loss.
“Put simply, data cannot be recovered if it isn’t backed up effectively to begin with.”
Some 86 per cent of business owners have said they are concerned that they will become a cybercrime target while 23 per cent admit that they are not at all prepared to defend themselves against cybercrime.
Amid the increasing number of cyberattacks on businesses, 27 per cent believe they would go out of business if they permanently lost data.
Business owners also cited damage to growth and reputation, regulatory consequences and loss of customers as concerns if data is stolen.
