One in every nine business PCs worldwide is at risk of infection from malware at any time according to new research from Avast.
The firm utilized its own threat detection and intelligence data from August to September 3018 to compile its Avast Global PC Risk Report 2019 which compared the likelihood of a cyberattack on PCs in SMBs by country and region to determine the most 'at risk' places.
Avast found that Pakistan, Vietnam and China are the riskiest places to be a business with more than a one in three chance of infection.
- UK unprepared for major cyberattacks
- Cyberattacks costing businesses millions each year
- Cyberattacks on businesses soar 55 percent
On the other hand, the US, the Netherlands and Ireland recorded the lowest business risk ratio globally though each country still had a one in eleven chance of infection. In the UK, 10 percent off business PCs are at risk of exposure to malware compared to eight percent in the US and Netherlands and nine percent in Ireland and Australia.
Riskiest operating systems
While calculating the risk ratio by Windows operating system, Avast found businesses using Windows 7 and Windows 10 are more at risk with a one in nine chance of encountering a threat followed by Windows 8 and Windows Vista users.
Using an outdated version of Windows can leave your system more open to cyber threats but the firm found that even those on the latest version of Windows 10 are still potentially vulnerable to cyber threats.
According to Avast, nine percent of all Windows 10 and 15 percent of Windows 7 operating systems currently in use globally are either out-of-date or unpatched which makes them potentially vulnerable.
General Manager and Senior Vice President of Avast Business, Kevin Chapman provided further insight on the findings of the report, saying:
“With the average cost of cybercrime to an organization now estimated to be $1.43 million, the financial and reputational fallout for an SMB after a successful cyberattack could be irrecoverable. Our new Avast Secure Web Gateway is a SaaS-based web security product that provides SMBs with enterprise-grade protection against the prevalent and advanced threats analyzed in this report. This builds out our layered security approach ensuring small businesses are protected on the network as well as at the endpoint as the number of threats hitting organizations continues to grow.”
- We've also highlighted the best antivirus to protect your business from the latest cyber threats
