Businesses in Aotearoa need to prioritise cyber security.
If you feel your business is prepared for a cyber incident, you are in the minority.
Small businesses are the target for nearly half of all cyber crime in New Zealand, and incidents are costly – the estimated cost of a data breach, for example, is $173,000.
But just over half of small to medium businesses (SMEs) have cyber security as a top priority and less than half say they are prepared for a cyber incident, according to new research by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).
Cyber security behavioural research - CERT NZ(external link)
The good news from the 2024 SME Behaviour Tracker is that many businesses have made basic cyber security actions part of normal operations. The flip side is that a lot of SMEs only act when they are targeted.
- One in every three SMEs experienced at least one cyber attack in the last six months.
- Of these, almost 60% took new actions to keep themselves more secure online.
- Compared to less than 30% of businesses that hadn't been targeted.
- More than a third of SMEs don't do regular backups of their data and even fewer don't update their software.
"We know online attacks can be quite damaging for small businesses,” NCSC Director Mission Enablement Michael Jagusch said. “But we also see many businesses are continuing to focus on the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff rather than on building the fence at the top.”
“We really need businesses to have their defences up for the very first attack, rather than being better prepared for the second one.”
The Own Your Online website has been developed to provide practical and free information on how businesses can improve their cyber resilience. If you run a business and are not sure how to go about managing your online security, you can complete a short online assessment and get a customised plan that works for you.
Business online security assessment tool - Own Your Online
The full SME behaviour tracker report is available to download.