Contrastingly, the survey also found that 92pc of Irish businesses believe they are ‘adequately protected’ against cyberattacks.
57pc of Irish businesses skip regularly updating their software, while more than half fail to run automated data backups.
Experts from the insurance broker and risk management firm Gallagher, who conducted this survey, found that this indicates a “worrying lack of protection” against cybercrime.
The company surveyed 300 business decision-makers across the UK and Ireland – 100 of whom are based in Ireland – to assess how businesses in the region are protecting themselves.
The survey found that just 39pc of Irish organisations provide cybersecurity training to their staff. Training employees is often one of the most effective methods to prevent cyber incidents.
However, despite skipping such protective measures, 92pc of Irish businesses believe that they are “adequately protected” against cyberattacks.
Gallagher experts say that this highlights a “disconnect between perception and reality”.
Moreover, only 48pc of Irish businesses use multi-factor authentication (MFA) for all applications used through remote access, while just 38pc use MFA for employee email accounts.
Meanwhile, UK businesses are more cyber conscious and slightly less sure of their cyber resilience, the survey found.
71pc of businesses in the UK regularly run software updates, while 57pc train all their staff on cybersecurity. 89pc of the firms in the country said they feel adequately protected against cyberattacks.
Although, contrastingly, 94pc of Irish businesses have a dedicated cyber insurance policy, compared to only 79pc in the UK.
“Our research suggests that there is a mismatch between how well protected businesses in Ireland believe they are against cyberattacks – and the steps they have taken to manage such threats,” says Laura Vickers, the managing director of commercial lines at Gallagher.
”Regularly updating software is a very basic step but it is crucial for cybersecurity, as updates often include security patches that address vulnerabilities and this in turn could potentially prevent cyberattacks and data breaches.”
Vickers explains that automatic data backups help protect against data loss from incidents such as ransomware attacks, hardware failure and accidental deletions.
According to the survey, 100pc of business leaders from several sectors – agriculture, business services, construction, hospitality and leisure, legal services, marketing and PR, manufacturing, retail, and utilities – said that they feel sheltered against cyberthreats.
Interestingly, the Gallagher survey also found that 100pc of businesses based in Munster said they felt protected against cyberattacks, closely followed by Ulster-based businesses at 94pc. Meanwhile, 92pc of businesses based in Dublin felt the same.
Moreover, Munster-based businesses were most likely to train their staff on cybersecurity. Still, 40pc of businesses in the area say that they do not train their staff.
Other areas in Ireland are even less likely to train their staff on cybersecurity. Only 47pc in Dublin had done so, followed by 38pc in Ulster, 24pc in Leinster and 22pc in Connacht.
In addition, 60pc of Munster businesses say they update their software regularly – the highest in Ireland. This is followed by Dublin at 53pc and Leinster at 33pc.
“Research published by Gallagher earlier this summer found that four in 10 Irish businesses have suffered at least one cyberattack in the last five years and of those businesses, 88pc suffered a financial loss and commercial disruption,” Vickers said.
“It is important that Irish businesses are not complacent about the threats out there and that they don’t overestimate their cyber resilience or underestimate the potential impact of a cyberattack.”
A PwC survey from 2024 found that just 28pc of businesses in Ireland had “robust” cybersecurity measures in place.
Don’t miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic’s digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.
