Companies have significantly felt the impact of the pandemic and armed conflict in Ukraine on their security over the past two years and 64 % of Polish company executives fear a cyber attack.

The survey on cyber security in companies was conducted by research agency SW Research in July and August 2022 on behalf of Sophos. It involved interviews with 310 senior managers working in small, medium and large companies. The same survey was also carried out in the Czech Republic and Hungary.

Sophos noted in a release that the percentage of Polish companies affected by ransomware, malware whose removal requires paying a ransom, increased from 13 % in 2020 to 77 % in 2021.

64 % of directors and managers of Polish companies fear a cyber attack due to the war in Ukraine and the experience caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, while only 15 % of respondents considered a cyber attack on their company as unlikely.

As Sophos points out, for one in two respondents this is a real risk, and one in ten believes that it is only a matter of time before cyber criminals take action against them. The results of the survey among Polish respondents differ significantly from the findings abroad. 64 % of Hungarians believe that a cyber attack on their company is unlikely or even impossible. Among Czechs, the percentage is 45 %.

The survey also took into account the impact of war on perceptions of cyber security. 56% of managers and directors are of the opinion that interest in this topic in their companies has “significantly increased”.

Data access controls have started to be used in almost half of the cases, and 42% of companies have organised training for employees on cyber security – most often in small (44 %) and large companies (51 %). Sophos reported that one in three respondents admitted that the war in Ukraine has not affected the way they work or their company’s security policies.

Adrian Andrzejewski