Many business leaders in the UK remain uncertain about the real risk of cyber attack on their business.

They understand the global and national threats, but associate these attacks and the defence against them as being about the activities of terrorists and nation states.

Organisations of all sizes, though, are at risk: cyber attacks are automated and indiscriminate – the websites and Internet communications of small organisations can be affected by the side-effects of a cyber attack focused on a larger organisation.

And, of course, as cyber crime wins more dramatic headlines, so more people feel encouraged to ‘give it a go’ – by releasing viruses onto their own work networks, removing confidential information, or just using their office network to try out an attack on some third party.

While the UK government, through the newly-formed Office of Cyber Security and Information Assurance (OCSIA), will be providing significant resources to protect national assets, it is the responsibility of individual companies to protect their own assets and sensitive information against the disparate range of potential threats to their day-to-day business.

IT Governance Ltd – always at the forefront of the fight to help clients protect their confidential information and critical business operations – will be adding additional resources to their information security and business continuity toolkits to make cyber security and business resilience even more affordable for their customers.

“While ‘cyber attack’ sounds like a Hollywood film, the threat is real for most businesses. The good news is that the best defence against this sort of hi-tech attack is relatively mundane and can be encompassed by good, basic information security management practices. Use the international best practice standard, ISO27001, to guide your efforts in identifying critical information assets and putting in place controls appropriate to identified risks. Have Internet-facing IP addresses and websites tested for technical vulnerabilities. These two steps will put any organisation in a strong position to remain aloof from the cyber maelstrom,” said Alan Calder, CEO of IT Governance Ltd.

“In fact, have a penetration test of your Internet-facing resources first, as this is your greatest exposure, and then put in place managed systems for information security and business continuity. We have added resources to our best-selling toolkits to make them even more useful – and have reduced the price of our unique penetration testing packages to make them easily affordable.”

“Organisations should take immediate action to prepare themselves for the new information insecurity world.”