90% UK firms have information security incident

90 per cent of UK firms have been plagued by an information security incident, an increase from last years figure of 81%.

The research, conducted by PwC, found that 74 per cent of SMEs were also affected by a breach of some description. This was up from 60 per cent a year ago.

The cost to firms from the most serious breaches has also shot up and is now pegged at between £1.46 million and £3.14 million for a large organization, up from £1.15 million a year ago. The cost to a small firm from a serious breach was found to be up to £311,000, up from £115,000 a year ago. These figures include lost business and the price of asset recovery.

The report also revealed that the number of external attacks on large organizations in the UK had increased by 38%. In good news, malware-related attacks had halved.

13 per cent of large organizations suffered a security breach relating to social networking sites and the percentage of large firms reporting an incident involving tablets and smartphones had doubled to 15 per cent from seven per cent the previous year.

The UK government has released a 'Ten Steps' guide on how to safeguard infrastructure - it is estimated that 33 per cent of firms are making use of the information.