Exclusive research: Phishing outranks ransomware as top cyber-threat for 2019

Some 17 per cent of IT decision makers polled in CRN research say they have been the victim of a ransomware attack

UK IT decision makers regard phishing, rather than ransomware, as the biggest cyber-threat facing their organisations in 2019, according to exclusive CRN research that will be unveiled at tomorrow's CRN On event.

Research conducted for the event, which will take place at Prince Philip House in London, quizzed 156 IT decision makers from UK private and public sector organisations.

Asked about the biggest cyber-threat facing their organisation this year, some 23 per cent pinpointed phishing.

Ransomware, which has taken more of a backseat of late after dominating the headlines in 2016 and 2017, polled 22 per cent of the vote, ahead of cybercrime (16 per cent), endpoint security (15 per cent), business email compromise (12 per cent) and DDoS (eight per cent).

Some 17 per cent of those questioned said they had been the victim of a ransomware attack.

Of these, only four per cent said they paid the fine. Nearly half (46 per cent) said they had been hit more than once.

Some four per cent of all respondents said they had been breached as a result of a partner error. One such victim - the cybersecurity lead of a large central government organisation - said they had suffered a phishing attack through a partner's data loss, while another - who worked for a large manufacturing firm - explained this had happened because a partner who had their organisation's data was breached.

Some 62 per cent of respondents said their organisation still has some devices running Windows 7. Of these, 30 per cent believed not all devices would be upgraded by the time Microsoft ends Windows 7 support at the start of 2020.

The full findings will be exclusively unveiled at tomorrow's The Future MSP CRN On event. For the full agenda, see here.