The attention and willingness to take action among Dutch companies and consumers for digital security is again increasing slightly. This is according to Alert Online 2023, the annual survey on cyber awareness commissioned by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate (EZK). According to Minister Micky Adriaansens (EZK), however, we cannot sit back. More alertness and targeted measures from entrepreneurs and consumers with support from the government are necessary for safe digital business.
As in 2022, three-quarters of the Dutch consider their own knowledge of online risks such as phishing, hacking and malware reasonable to good. But still more than two-thirds of Dutch consumers and 59% of business employees do not report or report cyber attacks or crime. And one in five small SMEs (was 25% in 2022) still take no actions at all to be digitally secure.
Minister Micky Adriaansens (Economic Affairs and Climate): "It is good to see that more Dutch people are becoming knowledgeable about cyber risks. Think of safer logging into systems or updating devices. The government is not sitting still either. For example, I am working with my European colleagues on the Cyber Resilience Act, which sets requirements to make devices more digitally secure: in other words, security by design."
The minister continued: "On sufficient awareness you cannot point out often enough. So I again call on everyone to report online risks more often and on all companies to make digital security part of their business operations. And take advantage of the help we offer in doing so, such as through the Digital Trust Center's My Cyber Resilient Business grant program."
Phishing still remains the most common form of cybercrime (21%) faced by Dutch people. Almost all forms of cybercrime are known to a majority of people. Only social engineering often lags behind in terms of familiarity. These are in fact digital chat tricks aimed at obtaining confidential or secret information. For example, a criminal covertly posing as a help desk employee and arousing the curiosity of a victim.
At the surveyed companies, ICT-responsible persons indicate that they are especially worried about the danger of a data leak (24% are very worried). ICT officers are also more concerned about online security than before, but feel that reporting it makes little sense (25%). A third of large companies now block employees' access to certain social media in order to increase digital security.
The full Alert Online 2023 survey among nearly 1,100 Dutch citizens and more than 1,000 ICT employees and business leaders, conducted by I&O Research on behalf of the Ministry of EZK, can be read here. Alert Online is a partner network that focuses on the digital resilience and security of businesses, governments and consumers in the Netherlands during European Cyber Security Month in October. Various activities are organized in the Netherlands by all these partners in areas such as awareness raising.
The Digital Trust Center created the five basic principles of secure digital business to help business owners get basic security in place. Business owners who follow these basic principles increase their resilience to cyber risks that can disrupt business operations. The basic principles are: identify vulnerabilities, choose secure settings, perform updates, restrict access and prevent viruses and other malware.
