Last year, just under twelve percent of Flemish companies became victims of a cyber attack. These figures are announced by Hilde Crevits, Flemish Minister of Economy.
“We see that small companies in particular are not adequately defending themselves against cyber attacks,” says Hilde Crevits. Crevits checked out the state of cyber security in Flemish companies and that led her to this conclusion.
Flemish SMEs still have work to do, according to Crevits, with installing proper security for various parts of IT. For example, she cites the security of software, applications, passwords and data.
SMEs get encouragement
Although the cyber attacks in Flanders were mainly directed against large companies, these companies are not experiencing major problems. If, on the other hand, a Flemish SME is hit, in quite a few cases the computer system is down. Furthermore, company data were lost in 20 percent of the attacks. In one in ten of the affected SMEs, data were also stolen.
Crevits wants to encourage Flemish SMEs to increase cyber security by making VLAIO’s “Cybersecurity Improvement Pathways” more widely accessible. That is not the only initiative Crevits is taking: “In order for our companies to protect themselves better and more against cybercrime, we have decided to adjust some subsidy conditions. I call on everyone to make useful use of this.”
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