Two-thirds of big British businesses have been attacked by hackers in the last year

Two-thirds of big British businesses have been hit with cyberattacks over the past year, according to a new UK Government report.

And 25% of these companies get breached at least once a month.

On Sunday, the government put out the Cyber Security Breaches Survey for 2016, a study written with research firm Ipsos Mori.

It examines to what extent British businesses have been affected by cybercrime in the last 12 months, and how. And it turns out a lot of them have been, a lot.

The full report is embedded below if you want to read it, but here are some of the key figures:

• 65% of large firms detected a breach/attack over the last year (when you include undetected attacks, that number will almost certainly be higher). 25% of these companies experienced breaches on a monthly basis.
• Only 51% of companies have taken the government's "recommended actions" to reduce risk.
• 68% of attacks are malware, spyware, and viruses - with 32% being more sophisticated impersonation-based attacks.

Larger companies are - perhaps predictably - targeted more often than smaller ones. Overall, 24% of British businesses have experienced "a cyber security breach or attack" in the last 12 months.

Here's a breakdown of the data showing the nature of the different attacks.

Conservative minister Ed Vaizey, writing the foreword for the report, said: "When I speak to businesses it is clear awareness of the cyber threat is now very high. Everyone I talk to agrees the threat is significant and needs to be tackled, but there is a gap between awareness and action, which is highlighted in this report. We see a steady stream of breaches and attacks on firms which assume they are on top of security, but still haven't got a good understanding of the possible impact on their business or what they should do about it."

Here's the full report: