40 Percent Of UK Businesses Suffered Security Breaches Due To Spam

An independent survey of 200 small-to-medium British businesses (SMBs) commissioned by GFI Software has found that respondents feel the overall volume of spam they are receiving is increasing.

Even more worrying is the revelation that 40 percent of UK businesses have suffered a data breach resulting from malicious links or files that are delivered by spam emails.

Spam, wonderful spam

An overwhelming 86 percent of IT decision-makers who participated in the survey say the volume of spam in their organisation has either increased or remained the same in the past year.

According to the study, 46 percent of businesses rely on the anti-spam component of their antivirus solution to block unwanted emails; a fifth use a dedicated software solution; 22.5 percent have an anti-spam gateway appliance, and only 7.5 percent use a cloud-based solution.

The majority (70 percent) of SMEs say their anti-spam defence is either marginally effective or not effective at all.

The North West of the UK has more people complaining about spam than any other region – 92 percent. The South West and Wales are relatively safe, with just 66 percent each. London was the area most affected by spam-related breaches and infections, with 56 percent of those surveyed in the area admitting to being compromised by a spam-based threat.

“This research shows that the spam problem is not going away, and in fact, the delivery of malicious links and files makes it more dangerous than ever before,” said Phil Bousfield, general manager of GFI Software’s Infrastructure Business Unit. “Businesses need to respond by taking advantage of all the latest spam-fighting technologies available to them.”

Antivirus solutions are an effective component of a multi-layered spam defence. A comprehensive anti-spam solution, however, incorporates a combination of defences located on-premises and in the cloud.

“The increasing volume of email-borne threats – coupled with an organisation’s need to balance security and infrastructure costs – is a growing burden on IT administrators looking to find the optimum and most cost-effective approach to email security,” added Bousfield. “Cloud-based anti-spam solutions are increasingly being deployed by businesses to bolster their existing email defence and stop spam from even entering the network.”

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