As many as 70% of UK businesses have been the victim of a successful network security attack over the past year, according to new data commissioned by Barracuda Networks.

In its report – The state of network security in 2021 – the firm says that of the businesses to suffer a successful incident, 65% were a victim to at least one ransomware attack. The figures come from a survey of 100 UK IT decision makers responsible for their organisation’s networking, public cloud and security and aimed to get their views on cloud adoption working remotely and other cybersecurity risks.

The report also revealed that 80% of those with company-issued devices share their internet connection with other members of their household, posing a potential security risk. In addition, 34% of UK companies do not issue company devices and operate a bring your own device (BYOD) policy. 43% have company devices but also allow BOYD for emails and other tasks.

Remote working risks will continue to be a key issue for organisations, with 94% of IT decision-makers questioned stating that they expect the majority of their workforce to continue working from home for at least one or two days a week, and over a third will be remote working on a full-time basis.

To minimise risks, Barracuda suggests companies implement secure access service edge services to prevent security breaches. Tim Jefferson, SVP of engineering for data, networks and application security at Barracuda, said: “Organisations are experiencing a high level of network breaches and facing ongoing connectivity and security challenges as they adapt to hybrid work environments. But they are realizing that moving to SaaS applications and the public cloud improves both the user experience and security, so they’re starting to embrace new Secure Access Service Edge technologies.”

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