UK SMEs do not have sufficient skills to prevent cyber attacks

An alarming cyber security skills shortage has been exposed with just one in five companies revealed to have sufficient in-house capability to protect critical assets from attack, a study has found. 96% of those hit by a data breach in the last year report that inadequate security testing was at least somewhat responsible for the issue.

SMEs with between 100 and 250 employees are the most vulnerable, according to research from AVORD – a new security testing platform – which found that only 1% of small companies have the knowledge to fully protect data and assets against cyber attacks. Shockingly 4% of small businesses do not security test their products or infrastructure on a regular basis.