Cyber Security & Data Breach Stats 2023

In the rapidly growing digital age, cyber threats and attacks are becoming smarter. It is vitally important to use cyber security tools and training to prevent your organisation from falling victim. Rather than waiting for the attack to happen and then taking action, it is recommended to be proactive in order to spot cyber threats early.

Even as we are writing this article, big names including the BBC, Boots and British Airways are deciding how to react to ransom demands from Russian hacker group “Clop” who have stolen personal data of more than 100,000 members of staff.

In contrast to the Statistics on Data Breaches in the UK, 2021, it is evident that organisations are becoming more aware of the negative impact a cyber attack can have. However, data breaches still present an extremely high risk due to the fact most of the world operates online, creating more opportunities for successful cyber attacks.

Statistics on Data Breaches in the UK, 2022-2023

Here are some recent UK data breach and cyber security threat statistics for 2022-2023. These highlight the importance of ensuring that cyber security training is regularly assessed and refreshed within any type of organisation; especially businesses and charities:

• As of 2023, the UK Government estimates that, on average, the most disruptive breach for each business (large or small) resulted in a loss of around £1,100. Breaking that down further, the average cost of the most serious breach for charities was estimated to be approximately £530. For medium and large businesses, this resulted in a loss of approximately £4,960 ₁
• It was estimated that approximately 2.39 million cases of cyber crimes affected UK businesses over the past 12 months ₁
• The average cost of a data breach within the UK has increased by 8.1%, resulting in a total cost of £4.56 million ₃
• Around 49,000 fraudulent incidents across all UK businesses were recorded as a result of cyber crime ₁
• Approximately 785,000 cyber crimes were found across UK charities in the last 12 months ₁
• In the incident of a cyber attack, approximately 84% of both businesses and charities affected informed their directors of the breach ₂
• 75% of charities have kept an internal record of cyber threats. For medium and small business, around 68% recorded theirs ₂
• Approximately 70% of charities examine the cyber threats after the incident has happened. 66% of businesses responded similarly ₂
• Approximately 20% of UK businesses who became victims of a cyber attack needed to carry out new precautions as a preventative measure ₄
• An additional 23% of UK businesses have allocated time for their staff to deal with cyber security breaches. Over 10% found the breach impacted their daily work and productivity ₄
• 11.3% of UK IT budgets were spent on security works, resulting in the fifth lowest country to spend on security budgets ₅
• Approximately 50% of senior executives in the UK undertook action after a cyber incident has taken place, concentrating more on the recovery than prevention of an attack ₆
• Around 90% of UK organisations have encountered a greater risk of exposure to cyber security threats due to the rise of digital use over the past two years ₆
• Approximately 83% of businesses that encountered a cyber threat were targeted by a phishing attack ⁷

Don’t Become a Cyber Security Statistic in 2024!

Protect your organisation from the risks of a data breach by providing staff with Cyber Awareness Training. It’s always more cost effective to ensure your cyber security approach is preventative rather than reactive after the event!

If you would like to learn more about cyber security and data protection, please contact us.