One in seven attacks came from Chinese IP addresses
The volume of cyber attacks on UK businesses increased by 179 per cent year-on-year in Q2 of 2019, according to a new report from independent business ISP Beaming.
Beaming’s analysis found that businesses in the UK received on average 146,491 attempted cyber attacks each, compared to 52,596 in the same quarter in 2018, equating to one attack every 50 seconds. This is the highest level of attacks recorded since Beaming began monitoring them at the beginning of 2016.
IoT devices and file sharing services were the most targeted business applications.
Beaming’s cybersecurity analysts identified 371,080 unique IP addresses used to launch cyber attacks in the quarter. More than 50,000 were traced to China, while others originated from Taiwan, Brazil, Egypt and the USA.
Beaming’s managing director Sonia Blizzard said: “The rate at which UK businesses are attacked online has soared over the last year and companies large and small are under sustained attack from hackers around the world. The majority of cyber attacks on businesses are indiscriminate, malicious code that trawls the web seeking to exploit any weak point in cybersecurity systems. A single breach can be catastrophic to those involved.
“Businesses need to take the threat seriously, educate employees and put in place measures such as managed firewalls to ensure they don’t expose themselves to undue risk.”