Almost a third of businesses in Ireland reserve budget for paying ransoms

Ellen O'Donoghue

Almost one third of businesses in Ireland reserve a budget for paying ransoms, while 53 per cent of businesses have fallen victim to social engineering cyberattacks in the last year.

Of those who fell victim to social engineering cyberattacks, 89 per cent reported that the attacks resulted in a security breach.

In the next year, 29 per cent of businesses anticipate there will be a successful cyberattack against their organisation, according to research by Expleo.

However, in the last 12 months, 33 per cent of businesses in Ireland have paid a ransom to cybercriminals.

Global engineering, technology and consulting service provider, Expleo, surveyed medium-to large-sized businesses across the island of Ireland, uncovering the impact and prevalence of cybersecurity threats.

The research also found that one third of businesses have been severely impacted by an incident within their organisation in the last 12 months, while 31 per cent have been severely impacted by a cybersecurity incident in their supply chain.

The average enterprise in Ireland will spend €1.18 million on cybersecurity in the next 12 months, with one in seven spending more.

A quarter of businesses admitted that they do not invest enough in cybersecurity, while 27 per cent reported that their security technologies and processes are outdated.

Half of all businesses admitted that their defences were breached by a ransomware attack in the last 12 months.

Most businesses have also been targets of voice-cloning, phishing, whaling (phishing attacks on senior figures in the organisation), malware and AI-powered attacks in the past year, with success rates of between 40 and 50 per cent across all cyberattacks.

Rob McConnell, global solutions director at Expleo Group said the research shows that if businesses have avoided falling victim to one type of attack, they have probably not been so fortunate with another.

“We have reached the point where it is not if you will be targeted, but when and how often. Every single business should expect to be targeted by sophisticated attacks on an ongoing basis. It is only with this level of pragmatism that they will be able to deploy the defences needed to combat or detect these advances,” he said.

“Enterprises must be confident that they are investing enough in cybersecurity and that their systems and processes are constantly being updated and reinforced.”