Business leaders feel most threatened by cyber-attacks for a second year running

Newly released report from the Business Continuity Institute in association with BSI identifies threats to organisations worldwide.

The 5th annual BCI Horizon Scan report is a research study produced in association with BSI, assessing business preparedness and measuring the feelings of business continuity and resilience professionals from 568 organisations globally. It provides an insight into the top 10 threats facing businesses today. 

“2015 saw a number of high profile businesses across the world hit by cyber-attacks, so it is reassuring to see that so many are aware of the threat it poses. Our research finds it to be the top concern in six out of the eight regions surveyed” said Theuns Kotzé, Regional Managing Director, BSI Middle East and Africa.

According to the BCI Horizon Scan report cyber-attacks remain a top threat, followed by data breaches and unplanned IT and telecom outages. Every organisation faces different risks throughout their lifetime. These can range from minor threats to large crises that can threaten your reputation and ultimately your business. Being prepared is critical for an organisation to mitigate risks, by having a comprehensive risk management system in place this will help minimise the impact on a company’s reputation, business and brand.

“However, we remain concerned to see that businesses are still not fully utilising the information available to them to identify and remedy weaknesses in their organisational resilience. It is difficult to conceive that either investors or employees will be reassured that the leaders of the organisations they trust are making strategic decisions without an effective evaluation of risk. 

“Ultimately, organisations must recognise that, while there is risk, and plenty of it, there is also opportunity. Taking advantage of this means that leaders can steer their businesses to succeed by not just surviving, but thriving” said Kotzé.

For more than a century BSI has been challenging complacency to help organisations perform better, reduce risks and achieve sustainable growth. BSI pioneered standards to support better risk management including an Information Security Management System (ISO/IEC 27001), Business Continuity Management System (ISO 22301), CSA Star Certification (cloud security) and a Risk Management System (ISO 31000). 

Formed in 1901, BSI was the world’s first National Standards Body and, over 100 years later is globally recognised as the champion of best practice. BSI is also responsible for originating many of the world’s most commonly used management systems standards and currently has 37,384 standards in their portfolio.  

BSI works with over 80,000 clients in 182 countries worldwide to help them adopt and cultivate the habits of best practice. Clients are trained and provided with practical guidance for implementation alongside a suite of compliance tools.