Over 70% of Irish companies were hit by at least one cyber attack over the last 12 month, new data shows.
The latest Hiscox Cyber Readiness report shows a 22% increase on the previous year, when just 50% of firms reported an attack.
Ireland had the highest median average number of attacks in all countries studied, a fourfold increase on the previous year.
The global percentage of companies suffering at least one cyber attack in 53%, the report shows.
In line with Belgium, The Netherlands and France, the most common point of entry for hackers was a corporate-owned server, while the most common outcome was a financial loss due to Payment Diversion Fraud.
Despite the high number of attacks, the report states that Ireland’s cost of all cyberattacks is 'relatively low'.
51% of companies said their annual bill was below €10,000, an improvement on last year when only 35% were below €10,000.
As a result, the mean and median averages have significantly dropped in Ireland, with the median cost attack €8,860 compared with €15,103 last year, while the largest single attack was €118,128, compared with €5,198,000 in the 2022 report.
The report shows that Ireland is again more likely than any other country to pay a ransom at 77%, with phishing overtaking 'unpatched servers’ as the most likely entry point.
When ransoms were paid either to recover data or prevent the publishing of sensitive data, only a third reported the full recovery of data, with 31% saying the attacker asked for more money.
Of all countries surveyed, cyber insurance ownership is highest in Ireland at 69%, and the majority of those have a standalone policy at 44%
Today's data also reveals that IT spending has increased from a median of €468,280 to €890,560, but cyber-specific spending has increased only slightly - from 22% to 23%.
"Preparing for the worst is welcome, but trying to stay ahead of the threats is equally important and we see that hackers are constantly changing how they work to identify new vulnerabilities, as we can see from the rise of Phishing emails as the main entry point," said Simon Sheahan, Senior Cyber Claims Specialist at Hiscox Ireland.
"It is positive that the median cost for Irish businesses has dropped, but the significant increase in the number of businesses being attacked means we must all remain vigilant of the growing threats," he added.
