Cyber Crime Costs Irish Businesses $300M Annually
A new study reveals spam, viruses, phishing and credit-card fraud have become serious issues for small- to medium-sized businesses in Ireland, costing approximately $300 million yearly, according to the Irish Examiner.
After conducting a survey of more than 600 companies, the Irish Small & Medium Enterprises Association concluded cyber crime has become a growing problem. Unless something is done to address the situation, companies will continue seeing a dramatic rise in business costs.
Nearly 70 percent of companies reported being a victim of cyber crime in the last year. Nearly all respondents had been affected by spam, almost half (54 percent) by phishing, 51 percent from virus infection, and 13 percent had experienced credit-card fraud.
Eighty eight percent of companies have chosen to use anti-virus software as the preferred protection, with 74 percent using spam-filtering software and 71 percent installing hardware firewalls. Ten percent of companies has had to hire an IT professional to look after their security, with an additional 17 percent using an IT supplier responsible for security.
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