© Copyright Acquisition International 2025 - All Rights Reserved.

Article Image - Cybersecurity Awareness Month: 5 Essential Steps to Protect Your Business
Posted 15th October 2024

Cybersecurity Awareness Month: 5 Essential Steps to Protect Your Business

According to the 2024 UK Government Cybersecurity Breaches Survey, 50% of businesses experienced a cyber-attack or security breach in the past year.

Mouse Scroll AnimationScroll to keep reading

Let us help promote your business to a wider following.

Cybersecurity Awareness Month: 5 Essential Steps to Protect Your Business
National Cybersecurity Awareness Month. Shield and padlock.
  • An expert outlines essential practices for UK businesses to enhance their online protection and explains the concept of cyber hygiene and its importance
  • Last year, 32% of UK businesses reported experiencing a cyber-attack at least once a week, with cyber-attacks projected to increase by 15% globally in 2024
  • Recent data reveals that a staggering 50% of businesses encountered a cyber-attack or security breach in the past year

According to the 2024 UK Government Cybersecurity Breaches Survey, 50% of businesses experienced a cyber-attack or security breach in the past year.

In light of Cybersecurity Awareness Month, experts from e-commerce hosting provider Hypernode emphasise the significance of cyber hygiene for UK businesses and share essential practices to ensure online safety.

What is cyber hygiene?

Cyber hygiene can be explained as a set of practices to maintain system health and security in relation to a business’s online activities. Like physical hygiene, maintaining cyber hygiene entails a set of regular preventative measures.

Key practices

  • Antivirus and antimalware software – Installing antivirus and antimalware is an obvious place to start for protecting against cyber threats. These tools help detect malicious programs that can compromise data. Viruses and malware are constantly evolving, so it is crucial to also keep this protective software up to date.
  • Be cautious of phishing – Phishing is a common cyber-attack in which criminals use deceptive emails, messages, or websites to trick individuals into providing sensitive information. It is by far the most common type of cybercrime, with 90% of businesses that have experienced at least one type of cybercrime falling victim to phishing. Awareness and caution around possible phishing scams is crucial within all businesses.
  • Back up and encrypt data – Backing up important data and storing it securely will be helpful in the event of a data loss or ransomware attack. Particularly sensitive data, meanwhile, ought to be encrypted to ensure it can only be accessed by authorised parties.
  • Secure Wi-Fi, strong passwords, and MFA – While seemingly obvious, these three simple steps, which are often neglected, are absolutely key to good cyber hygiene. Unsecured Wi-Fi networks are vulnerable to attack from cybercriminals who may intercept data or gain access to internal systems. Similarly, weak passwords are susceptible to being hacked. Strong, unique passwords that are different for each online account should be used. MFA (Multi-factor authentication) adds a layer of security to data and internal systems, keeping out anyone who should not be able to access them.
  • Educating all employees – Perhaps the most important point is that a business’s security is only as strong as its weakest link, and a cyber-attack can target any employee. Providing cybersecurity training to all employees is crucial to ensuring the security of a business as a whole.

Milan Bosman, Commercial Director of Hypernode, spoke regarding the tips: “Warnings from experts, who have predicted the rise in cybercrime in the UK, have certainly been proven valid. Globally, cybercrime is expected to surge 15% throughout 2024, and 2023 government statistics already state that 32% of UK businesses experienced cyber-attacks at least once a week. With this, the importance of maintaining cyber hygiene continues to grow.

“With October being cybersecurity awareness month, it’s certainly a good time for businesses whose regulations are not up to date to review them and to ensure all staff are adequately educated around threats to avoid breaches in security.”

Categories: Finance, News


You Might Also Like
Read Full PostRead - Eye Icon
2016’s Leading Debt Advisory Firms
Finance
10/05/20162016’s Leading Debt Advisory Firms

Penningtons Manches’ corporate finance team in London is headed by Matt Martin who specialises in debt and capital advisory work

Read Full PostRead - Eye Icon
Striving for Excellence in Banking
Finance
28/06/2017Striving for Excellence in Banking

Ben is a commercially astute banking executive with an outstanding PanAfrican track record of success in developing profitable business functions and turning around poorly performing ones. Following his success in the Manager of the Year – Kenya award, as pa

Read Full PostRead - Eye Icon
Ready for New Challenges
Innovation
29/06/2017Ready for New Challenges

Carlos Martín of MST Holding was delighted to receive the CTO of the Year – Spain accolade recently, after which we took the opportunity to profile the company and his crucial role within it.

Read Full PostRead - Eye Icon
EU Commission Makes Plans for Fairer Single Market
Finance
11/11/2015EU Commission Makes Plans for Fairer Single Market

The European Commission has presented a roadmap to deliver on President Juncker’s political commitment to unleash the full potential of the Single Market and make it the launchpad for Europe to thrive in the global economy.

Read Full PostRead - Eye Icon
Best Corporate Finance Advisory Firm 2021
News
19/07/2022Best Corporate Finance Advisory Firm 2021

With a reputation for delivering best-in-class investment banking services, InvestBank Corp. provides expert investment banking advice to government, public, and private entities worldwide.

Read Full PostRead - Eye Icon
5 Capabilities of Dynamics 365 Business Central for Manufacturers
News
11/02/20255 Capabilities of Dynamics 365 Business Central for Manufacturers

Dynamics 365 Business Central, a powerful cloud-based ERP system provided by Microsoft, is successfully used by thousands of SMBs across many industries.

Read Full PostRead - Eye Icon
EXPEN International Tech Transactions Advisory of the Year 2017
Innovation
01/08/2017EXPEN International Tech Transactions Advisory of the Year 2017

EXPEN International Tech Transactions Advisory of the Year 2017

Read Full PostRead - Eye Icon
Gender Diversity: Differentiation Through Diversity
Leadership
08/03/2023Gender Diversity: Differentiation Through Diversity

Zoe Bailey joined European intellectual property firm, Withers & Rogers, as Head of Strategic Operations almost two years ago. Since then, she has worked alongside the company's female chair to implement a modern strategic framework for the business. Whilst th

Read Full PostRead - Eye Icon
Steps HR Can Take to Ensure New Hires are Settled Comfortably in Their Work Space
News
25/03/2024Steps HR Can Take to Ensure New Hires are Settled Comfortably in Their Work Space

Starting a new job is full of a cocktail of emotional experiences. Joy, nervousness, excitement, anxiousness, pride, are just a few examples of what likely goes through people’s bodies as they are transitioning from the interview and hiring process into



Our Trusted Brands

Acquisition International is a flagship brand of AI Global Media. AI Global Media is a B2B enterprise and are committed to creating engaging content allowing businesses to market their services to a larger global audience. We have a number of unique brands, each of which serves a specific industry or region. Each brand covers the latest news in its sector and publishes a digital magazine and newsletter which is read by a global audience.

Arrow