New research reveals that, despite the majority of technology decision makers at UK SMEs prioritising cyber security to ensure business continuity and growth, 17% still have no cyber strategy in place.
IT services provider OGL Computer, and its cyber division CyberGuard Technologies, has revealed the top technology concerns and priorities for UK SMEs in its new report: The State of Technology at UK SMEs.
The report highlights the current state of cyber security and technology adoption in UK SMEs, the challenges they face, attack frequency, whether they have strategy in place to mitigate attacks, how employees are trained to fight hackers and how they are accommodating emerging technologies.
To develop the report OGL Computer surveyed technology decision makers in SMEs with 50-500 employees across a range of industries.
Paul Colwell, Technical Director, OGL Computer and its cyber division CyberGuard Technologies, comments: “The inaugural State of Technology at UK SMEs report reveals that IT decision-makers at SMEs are waking up to cyber threats. The lack of resource to understand and manage the technology required to mitigate attacks in-house is still a major stumbling block, which may be why a surprising 17% still have no cyber strategy in place, despite 81% reporting having already suffered from a cyber-attack or data breach in 2019.
“Cyber security has been front of mind for many of our SME customers for some time now, as awareness of cyber-risks continues to rise. Every business should have a cyber security strategy in place from day one, with effective strategies requiring businesses to consider what data they hold, its location and the major threats they face. There are many approaches that can be used to arrive at a pragmatic and workable strategy that isn’t cost-prohibitive for SMEs.”
The survey established the technology priorities and concerns SMEs are expecting in 2020:
- The top three key technology priorities: increasing cyber security provision 39%, moving towards a more proactive IT strategy 39%, and increasing use of data and insights 37%
- The main technology concerns for 2020 were cyber security attacks 67%, data management 56%, and a lack of technology-savvy workers 54%
- 57% of respondents said that increasing the use of cloud computing is planned, to drive business efficiencies and profitability
- 92% of SMEs are planning to spend more on cyber security and IT in 2020.
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