The British Government have warned companies and businesses of ‘cyber crime’ and is now issuing advice on how to protect themselves from cyber threats reported the BBC. A conference took place at the Foreign Office in September and ministers and officials from the communications intelligence agency, GCHQ, will advise companies to use a more secure approach from now on.
Cyber crime is can cause a huge loss to companies and it is estimated that an amazing £21 billion is lost a year to cyber crime. Among those attacked include energy suppliers, broadcasters and banks. The victims of this modernised crime also shockingly include government departments and academic institutions.
A revealing survey in which was conducted by BAE Systems Detica suggested nearly 90 per cent of UK businesses were very confident over their companies. Despite this, the head of GCHQ will inform business leaders that this confidence put into their defence is misplaced with potentially major implications for the economy and customers trust in online services.
Lobain is set to ask members and chief executives or organisations how confident they are that their company’s most important information is safe from cyber threats and if they understand the consequences for the company’s reputation, share price or even if the organisation will even exist if it were to suffer from a security breach via cyber crime. The planned meeting will be addressed by William Hague, the foreign secretary and Vince Cable, the business secretary. The meeting is expecting to allow Lobain to explain past examples of how organisations have lost intellectual property and also millions of pounds because of such attacks through computing.
Back in June of 2011, the head of UK security agency MI5 stated that it was battling “astonishing” amounts of cyber attacks on the industry of the UK. Evans explained that internet "vulnerabilities" were being exploited by criminals as well as states.
Additionally, in September, intelligence agencies called for closer co-operation with companies operating in sectors that could help them identify cyber criminals and terrorists. British services GCHQ stated they were keen to hear from small and medium-sized firms that could provide them with the technology to deal with cyber threats.
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