UK businesses suffering a cyber attack every minute

British businesses are being hit by more cyberattacks than ever before, according to new research.

Findings from business ISP Beaming claims that on average, UK firms faced 119,659 internet-borne cyber attacks each in the first quarter of 2019 - equivalent to one per minute.

Remotely controlled IoT applications and file sharing services were the most likely targets for online cyber criminals, attracting 201 and 114 attacks per day respectively between January and March.

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Clear and present danger

Beaming says that the number of attacks was more than double that experienced in the first three months of 2018, when companies were attacked online 53,981 times on average - equivalent to a 122 percent rise.

China was the top source for attacks, with 51,004 incidents traced to IP addresses there, followed by Brazil (32,386) and Russia (31,131). The US came next, with the company also reporting a threefold rise in attacks originating from Egypt.

“Cyber attacks continue to be a clear and present danger to UK businesses and the IT infrastructure they rely on," said Sonia Blizzard, managing director of Beaming.

"Business leaders should be wary, the rate of attack has been at historically high levels since October last year. Since we started tracking cyber attack activity just over three years ago we’ve come to expect that businesses will be attacked around 20,000 times a month on average. At the moment we are seeing twice that level of malicious activity online.”