IT threats top business concerns, report shows

IT-related threats provide the greatest concern for businesses, ranking above natural disasters, security incidents and industrial disputes, a report has revealed.

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Just over three-quarters of business leaders polled fear the possibility of an IT outage and 73% worry about a cyber attack or data breach.

But geography and industry play an important role in determining threat levels, with respondents from Japan and New Zealand showing greater levels of concern for earthquakes, while those in the manufacturing industry rate supply chain disruption and product quality control as greater threats.

That is according to the latest annual report published by the Business Continuity Institute (BCI) in association with the British Standards Institution (BSI).

The BCI Horizon Scan also identifies long-term trends, with 73% of respondents seeing the use of the internet for malicious attacks as a major threat that needs to be closely monitored.

“Developing the resilience of networks, services and business-critical information must be an integral part of an organisation’s wider business resilience strategy,” said Howard Kerr, chief executive at BSI.

“By putting in place a framework based on risk standards, you will be able to identify, prioritise and manage the range of threats to your business more effectively and keep your stakeholders reassured,” he said.

The report, designed to offer a better understanding of threats to business continuity, also revealed that while supply chain disruption was among the top 10 threats in 2013, it has moved down to 16^th place.

This is despite increasing supply chain complexity featuring in the top five emerging trends, in addition to the recent BCI Supply Chain Resilience Survey, which revealed that 75% of respondents experienced at least one supply chain disruption during the previous year.