A Northamptonshire IT expert made the claim during a BBC television feature on Police CyberAlarm - a tool that monitors cyber attacks.
UK businesses are targeted by cyber criminals “thousands of times a day”, according to a Northamptonshire IT company.
Jon Davies, chief technical officer at Pervade Software, shed light on the growing cyber threat during a BBC local news feature last week.
Viewers heard how Pervade Software, based in Daventry, had worked with Northamptonshire Police to develop Police CyberAlarm.
Funded by the government, Police CyberAlarm acts like a CCTV camera, monitoring the traffic seen by a businesses’ connection to the internet. It will detect and provide regular reports of suspected malicious activity, enabling a business to take steps to improve its cyber resilience.
Mr Davies, who co-founded Pervade Software in 2012, told BBC Look East that Police Cyber Alarm was a vital tool in the fight against cyber crime.
He said: “Most people don’t realise that all businesses connected to the internet will be being attacked thousands of times per day, from all over the world.
"Firewalls are doing a great job in blocking those attacks, but by being able to visualise it like this, we can identify trends in data and help policing get a better picture of what threats businesses are facing.
“All it takes is one (attack) to get through and it can cost thousands.”
The news feature was introduced by presenter Julie Reinger, who told viewers that almost half of crimes committed were internet-borne. As such, she added cyber crime was now a “massive” threat to UK businesses.
The report, by journalist Sam Reed, began by looking at a summary of all worldwide attack traffic against a Northamptonshire-based company in a 12-hour period, as seen here:
The report went on to explain how Police CyberAlarm helps businesses monitor attempted attacks.
The system, which is a Government-funded policing support package, is aimed at small & medium enterprises and is being offered for free.
To find out more, click here or watch the below YouTube video.
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