NEWS ROUND-UP


Study Finds Almost 1 in 5 Small Businesses Affected by Fraud in 2018


New research by Merchant Machine has revealed which businesses are more likely to be at risk across sector and size. The analysis also looks at the risk across ten countries and the number of security breaches and incidents per sector.


How does the size of a business affect security?


Naturally, as a business increases in size, risk also increases, not only regarding technology but various other areas too. Larger businesses are under the most threat, with 29% of companies with more than 50+ employees being affected by fraud.


Small businesses with 1-9 employees had the smallest percentage of business affected by fraud at 10%, whilst this nearly doubled for medium-sized businesses (10-49 employees) at 19%.


The sectors at most risk


In a digital world, the threat of cyber attacks isn’t uncommon and with the risk of data breaches, fraud, and reputational damage – businesses are number one targets for cybercriminals. The new research by Merchant Machine showed that the


public sector had over 22,000 incidents in the last year, which includes website defacement or impersonation. They also


had over 300 breaches – meaning that numerous amounts of sensitive information were put at risk. It comes as no surprise that the IT (Information) sector, had


over 1,000 incidents in the past year, but only 109 breaches, one of the lowest amount of breaches overall of the industries studied, just behind the education sector with 101. The property sector had one of the worst figures across both


attacks – despite having only 368 incidents in the past year, the sector has almost the same amount of breaches at 338, making it one of the riskiest for putting sensitive information at risk.


Sector Public


Information Healthcare Financial


Professional Services Property Retail


Education Total


Incidents 22,788


1,040 750 598 540 368 317 292


53,308


Breaches 304


109 536 146 132 338 169 101


2,216


Sterling urges companies to take Social Media Screening more seriously after BBC debate controversy


Global leader of background and identity services, Sterling, has called for greater awareness around the importance of social media background checks following widespread criticism faced by the BBC over its vetting process after it emerged that a guest on its leadership debate show had allegedly shared anti-Semitic and sexist tweets. The guest, Abdullah Patel, has subsequently been sacked


after tweets came to light from a previously inactive Twitter profile in the aftermath of Tuesday’s debate. In response to the controversy, the BBC commented that: “had we been aware of the views he expressed he would not have been selected.” The selection was made after the BBC asked people to


submit questions via email or an online form, with the call- out made via social media and on air across several BBC platforms. The questions were picked by the production team based on subject areas, with those they judged to be the strongest making the final selection. Selectors also aimed for a geographical spread of questions and a variety of ages and backgrounds. Commenting on the story, Steve Smith, Managing Director EMEA at Sterling, said: “With 45 million people in the UK using


04 www.isopps.com


social media, screening these platforms is fast becoming a crucial part of any successful hiring or vetting program, and essential for reducing risk. In fact, statistics show that 43% of hiring managers have uncovered materials online that caused them not to hire someone” “Of course, while a more robust social media background screening policy would have gone a long way to avoiding this particular scandal, in the media, vetting those lined up for interviews can be tricky – particularly given the urgency with which many of these interviews take place. However, this case clearly demonstrates a need to strengthen the interviewee vetting process across all media channels. However, while these checks can offer a huge amount of insight on applicants, for many, the etiquette and ethics of performing this type of screening is still ambiguous. As long as this continues, this issue is bound to persist. ‘‘Ultimately, companies must be absolutely certain of what


checks they can perform, and work to develop a comprehensive and consistent background screening policy. With this type of plan in place, the BBC and other media outlets can better prevent these same errors occurring in the future.”


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