88% of UK businesses have been breached in 2018

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Average number of breaches per organisation increased to 3.67

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Cyberattacks are growing in volume and the average number of breaches in the UK has increased according to Carbon Black's second UK Threat Report.

The endpoint security firm surveyed over 250 UK CIOs, CTOs and CISOs from organisations across a range of industries to compile its report which builds on its first survey conducted in August of last year.

Carbon Black found that 88 percent of UK organisations reported suffering a breach during the last 12 months with the average number of breaches per organisation over the past year reaching 3.67, up from 3.48 in its last report.

Additionally, 87 percent of organisations have seen an increase in attack volumes and 89 percent said that attacks have become more sophisticated which is why 93 percent of organisations plan to increase their spending on cyber defense.

Rise in breaches

Carbon Black's Head of Security Strategy, Rick McElroy provided further insight on the findings of the report in a statement, saying:

“We believe our second UK threat report underlines that UK organisations are still under intense pressure from escalating cyberattacks. The report suggests that the average number of breaches has increased, but as threat hunting strategies start to mature, we hope to see fewer attacks making it to full breach status.” 

The report also found that humans are often the weakest link in cybersecurity and phishing attacks appear to be at the root of one in five successful breaches.

Malware remains the most prolific attack type in the UK with more than a quarter (27%) of organisations saying it was the attack type they most commonly encountered while ransomware took second place at 15 percent.

Carbon Black's report also shed light on how organisations are utilizing threat hunting and 95 percent of those surveyed said that the practice had helped strengthen their defenses.

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Anthony Spadafora
Anthony Spadafora

After working with the TechRadar Pro team for the last several years, Anthony is now the security and networking editor at Tom’s Guide where he covers everything from data breaches and ransomware gangs to the best way to cover your whole home or business with Wi-Fi. When not writing, you can find him tinkering with PCs and game consoles, managing cables and upgrading his smart home.