Businesses urged to lock the door on cyber criminals as government campaign launches

The UK government has launched a campaign promoting the Cyber Essentials scheme to help businesses protect against common online threats, after new figures showed high incident rates and significant average costs to firms.

The UK government has launched a campaign aimed at helping businesses protect themselves from common online threats. It focuses on promoting the Cyber Essentials scheme and is intended to reach small and medium-sized firms through social media, radio and business networks. New government figures published alongside the campaign show high rates of cyber incidents and notable costs to businesses. Officials say basic protections are important because attackers look for easy opportunities and no business is entirely out of reach. Key facts: - The campaign promotes the Cyber Essentials scheme as a set of baseline protections for businesses, developed with the National Cyber Security Centre and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. - New survey data reported that a large share of medium and large businesses experienced a cyber incident in the past year, and that significant incidents carry an average cost reported by the government; half of small businesses reported a breach or attack in the last 12 months. - The government says it is also strengthening resilience through the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill, which is intended to update protections for essential and digital services and key suppliers. Summary: The campaign highlights practical, baseline cyber protections and accompanies data showing widespread incidents and material costs to firms. Officials framed the effort as supporting business resilience and supply-chain security; the legislative and implementation timetable is undetermined at this time.