To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the threat to small businesses from cyber-attacks; and what steps they are taking to support small business to improve their cyber defences.
Answered on
18 March 2021
The government’s Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2020 found almost half (46%) of micro and small businesses reported cyber security breaches or attacks in the past 12 months. The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) 2020 Annual Review identified an increase in ransomware and phishing attacks over the past year.
The National Cyber Security Strategy sets out the government’s work to protect the UK online and help ensure all organisations, large and small, are effectively managing their cyber risk. The NCSC, working closely with trade bodies, local initiatives, banks and industry partners, provides a range of actionable guidance, training and easy to implement tools to help small businesses improve their cyber security. Last month, the NCSC launched a state-of-the-art tool which creates a personalised ‘Cyber Action Plan’ for small businesses as part of the cross-government Cyber Aware campaign.
DCMS is carrying out a review of business resilience and cyber security to identify what more can be done to build cyber resilience across the economy and increase security in supply chains.