The survey also claims that UK organisations are more confident
about security procedures for conducting Business to Business (B2B)
over the internet than they are about Business to Consumer (B2C)
transactions. Around 53% of respondents regard the internet as a
safe place to do B2B but only 32% regard it as safe to do B2C.
Small and medium-sized firms (SMEs) are more willing to adopt
B2C than B2B initiatives but are inhibited by lack of resources and
a fear of cybercrime. Of firms with more than 10,000 employees, 70%
have the facility to sell over the internet, compared with 32%of
SMEs (firms with fewer than 500 employees).
Hackers and viruses now pose the main threat to organisations
according to the CBI survey. The main perpetrators of such
incidences are hackers (45%), former employees (13%), organised
crime (13%) and current employees (11%).
In terms of the damage that cybercrime can inflict on a company,
loss of reputation through adverse publicity and loss of trust
would appear to be a greater fear than direct financial loss for
most organisations.
The survey goes on to recommend that companies need to review
their security controls and ensure that they are given high
priority within the organisation.
It concludes that there is a need for a co-ordinated approach to
understanding and minimising the risks of cybercrime.
It calls upon the UK government to contribute to the tackling
and prosecution of cross-border cybercrime and to create a UK
Centre for Cybercrime Complaints. It also calls for an extension to
the scope of the UK’s Computer Misuse Act to include attacks that
cause IT systems to fail.
Digby Jones, Director-General of the CBI said:
"This survey clearly shows that fears about
potential financial losses and damage to reputation from cybercrime
are stalling the growth of e-business, especially for business to
consumer transactions. That will only be overcome when all parties
are reassured that adequate security is in place to protect them.
Achieving that means firms understanding what the threats are and
Government keeping the law up to date and making sure it's properly
enforced."
The survey was carried out by the CBI in collaboration with the
Fraud Advisory Panel, PricewaterhouseCoopers, ArmorGroup and the
Nottingham Trent University International Fraud Prevention Research
Centre. The results were based on responses from 148
organisations.
