The author of a survey into Cyber Security across the Channel Islands says a third of organisations are vulnerable to a cyber attack – and doing nothing about it.

It’s been revealed that fewer than half say they’re certain they haven’t been hacked in the last year, while 1 in 5 have no plans to review their security information.

A third have no member of staff nominated to look after security either.

Senior Information Security Consultant David Cartwright, the report’s author, says that’s concerning.

“It’s a growing problem everywhere because the bad guys are moving a whole lot faster than the good guys.

“If you stand still, if you’re not updating your systems, if you haven’t got adequate protection – the number of vulnerabilities that are discovered every day exceed the number that are fixed so you are effectively getting weaker even if you’re not doing anything.”

More than 200 Channel Island companies took part in a survey carried out by the CI independent accounting and consulting practice Grant Thornton Limited.

The results stated that:

• 49% were certain they hadn’t been hacked in the previous 12 months.
• 26% ‘don’t believe’ they have been hacked in the previous 12 months.
• Two-thirds provide information security training at least once a year to all staff.
• 13% feared malicious user behaviour.
• 37% have no certification and don’t work to a security standard.
• 32% say they work to a security standard.
• 8% hold Cyber Essentials certification.
• 31% have nobody nominated to look after information security.
• 28% don’t give regular information security training.

“It sounds mean but actually people are a problem.

“People will unwittingly fall for fishing scams, these dodgy emails that are sent in looking very genuine but are actually there to steal your passwords.

“You’re never ever going to eradicate people falling for that because people are human. However you can train people and you mitigate the risk of it.” – David Cartwright, Security Consultant.