The DTI Information Security Breaches Survey 2004 (ISBS 2004), published in full on Tuesday, showed that two-thirds of firms fell victim to a network attacks in the last year.
The average cost of a serious breach has actually fallen to £10,000 ($17.900), compared to £30,000 ($53,600) in 2002, but with the number of malicious incidents on the rise the overall cost of IT security breaches remains broadly static.
The results from ISBS 2004 show that many major firms are losing millions through failed IT security. The average cost of a serious break to a large company is £120,000 ($214,500), and these large firms are suffering around four breaches a month--compared to one a month for all businesses.
Launching this year's report, e-commerce minister Stephen Timms said that the UK has reached a watershed for IT security.
"Until now, it was possible to believe that security problems are something that happened to someone else. That illusion has finally been laid to rest," said Timms.
According to ISBS, just a third of companies--and two-thirds of large firms--have an IT security policy.
“We can’t yet say on the base of this survey that risks are being well-managed by UK companies,” Timms said.
