A new study has found that cyberattacks pose a severe financial threat to the UK economy, costing businesses £34bn a year.
Of the total amount £18bn is lost due to successful attacks, with the remaining £16bn representing companies’ increased spending on IT.
Some 60% of chief technology officers (CTOs) feel the government is not acting effectively on preventing cyberattacks.
More than half (57%) of CEOs hold themselves accountable for major cyber security attacks, while 88% of businesses have increased their annual IT spending after a breach.
70% of CTOs also believe their existing cyber security policies stifle innovation, which potentially suggests a need for a better streamlined and automated risk assessments.
The online survey was carried out last month among 201 C-level executives for data-security company Veracode and the Centre for Economics and Business Research.
Veracode director of enterprise security program management Adrian Beck said: "The UK economy is under siege from cyberattackers and the UK government should look to other successful private/public partnerships — such as Swiss banking regulations, German data privacy laws and US breach disclosure laws — as a model of how to improve the situation for us all.
"For example, disclosure laws would require firms to report breaches in a timely fashion, thereby protecting consumers from identity theft and encouraging companies to implement best practices when dealing with cybersecurity."
Earlier this month, a survey by Blue Coat revealed that UK organisations are not well prepared to fight increasingly sophisticated cyber threats posed by social engineering.
