UK businesses are slower to react to possible data breaches than their international counterparts, a new study has concluded.
Clearswift reported that it takes, on average, nine hours for UK organizations to “spot unusual activity” on their networks.
In comparison, it takes firms in Germany around eight hours to notice irregular behavior on their systems.
Across the Atlantic, enterprises in the US are a lot more responsive to potential cyberattacks, with the research suggesting a seven hour response time.
Australians were found to be the most switched on, with organizations based in the country uncovering possible threats within five hours.
Dr. Guy Bunker, senior vice president at Clearswift, said that cyberattacks are a “major problem” and that businesses in the UK need to “wake up to this fact”.
“Speed holds the key and when it comes to speed of response, firms need to think in minutes not hours, constantly striving for better."
“Speed holds the key and when it comes to speed of response, firms need to think in minutes not hours, constantly striving for better,” he went on to say.
“Better still, organizations need to take a proactive stance. It is unfortunately a ‘when’ not an ‘if’ scenario.”
As threats to security can be both internal and external, all sorts of possibilities need to be considered by firms, Dr. Bunker added. This will allow them to make quicker detections.
Last month, Clearswift’s Insider Threat Index found that 40% of businesses are of the opinion that they will experience some sort of data breach next year.
Employee behavior, as the title of the index alludes to, was cited as the anticipated main cause, as was poor cybersecurity insight.
Heath Davies, chief executive at the company, commented at the time: “Cyberattacks are a major problem and it’s time for boards to take a proactive stance on this.
“Companies need a clear, coherent, adaptive strategy which encompasses people, processes and technology, and this mandate needs to come from the top.”
