Fewer than half of Irish companies automatically back up their data and just 43 per cent regularly update their software, potentially missing out on security updates, new research has found.
The report, from insurance broker and risk management company Gallagher in Ireland, found that just 49 per cent of businesses conduct regular automatic data backups.
The measure was described as “crucial” to companies’ cybersecurity by helping to protect against data loss during ransomware attacks, hardware failures or accidental deletions.
“Automated backups are considered more reliable and less error-prone than manual backups. Yet only half of Irish businesses run regular automated data backups,” explained Laura Vickers, Gallagher’s managing director of commercial lines.
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More than nine in 10 of the Irish businesses surveyed reported that they believed they are adequately protected against cyberattacks, despite low adherence to basic cybersecurity measures.
She said the survey of 300 decision-makers in companies across the UK and Ireland had detailed a “mismatch between how well protected businesses in Ireland believe they are against cyberattacks – and the steps they have taken to manage such threats”.
“Regularly updating software is a very basic step but it is crucial for cybersecurity, as updates often include security patches that address vulnerabilities and this in turn could potentially prevent cyber attacks and data breaches. Yet our survey shows that only 43 per cent of Irish businesses do this,” Ms Vickers said.
This lagged behind the level of adherence to updating software seen among businesses in the UK that were covered in the survey, 71 per cent of whom kept on top of software updates.
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UK businesses were also more likely to perform cybersecurity training for staff, 57 per cent against 39 per cent among Irish businesses. The report said that failing to train staff in cybersecurity was a “big oversight”.
Despite falling behind their UK counterparts in some measures, 94 per cent Irish businesses reported having a dedicated cyber insurance policy whereas just 79 per cent of those in the UK have done so.
Company confidence in their cyber security differed across sectors, with just 75 per cent of respondents working in professional services feeling sufficiently protected against cyber threats compared to a survey average of 92 per cent.
Previous research by Gallagher’s published earlier this year found that almost 90 per cent of Irish businesses have suffered some form of financial loss and commercial disruption as a result of a cyberattack in the past five years.
As many as 40 per cent of respondent companies said they had been the victim of at least one cyberattack in that period, with 26 per cent also reporting the loss of intellectual property.
