On 13 January 2020, Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, published statistics on security measures used by EU companies in the area of information and communication technologies (ICT), or cybersecurity.
In 2019, 93% of EU companies had at least one ICT security measure in place. The measures used most in the EU are updating operating systems, password authentication processes, internal network access control, encryption techniques for documents and emails and virtual private networks (VPNs). One in three EU companies (34%) had ICT security procedures in place, while 62% provided training to make their employees aware of their obligations in ICT security related issues. Only 24% of companies had insurance against cybersecurity-related incidents.
The data for Portugal showed that 98% of the Portuguese companies in this European survey used at least one ICT security measure and 54% said that their employees were aware of their online security obligations. Around 8% of the Portuguese companies surveyed said that they had had problems with hardware or software failures, corruption of data or unauthorised intrusion in 2018, though almost all of them said that they had adopted preventive measures. Only 10% of the companies surveyed had insurance against ICT security related incidents.
The Eurostat survey covered 160,000 EU companies employing 10 people or fewer in areas like production, energy, construction, commerce, information and communication and property, among others.
Further information:
- ICT security measures taken by vast majority of enterprises in the EU https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/2995521/10335060/9-13012020-BP-EN.pdf/f1060f2b-b141-b250-7f51-85c9704a5a5f
