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Some organisations experience 1,000 cyber attacks per year, poll finds

Published on: 31 May 2019

Some public sector organisations in the UK are experiencing more than 1,000 cyber attacks per year, new research has found.

A Freedom of Information request was submitted by IT management software company SolarWinds to investigate cyber security challenges and preparedness, to which 28 central government organisations, 164 NHS trusts and Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), and the Ministry of Defence responded.

It was found that 18 per cent had been subjected to at least 1,000 cyber attacks during 2018, up from 14 per cent in 2017.

Some 83 per cent of government organisations reported this, a significant increase on the 67 per cent who said the same thing in 2017.

The attacks were predominantly malware and phishing, with malicious insider threats and foreign governments the least common threats.

However, the poll also found nine per cent of organisations had not invested in cyber security employee training for the whole company and 15 per cent had not spent money on additional employee training for the IT team.

"While preparation is generally high throughout the public sector, the growth in large numbers of attacks shows that there is still a significant risk," said SolarWinds' Sascha Giese.

The news comes after a UK government report published earlier this year acknowledged that while cyber breaches largely decreased in 2018, those that were hit were targeted more often.