The cybersecurity industry is rapidly growing every day. Although more resources are being deployed to counter cyber attacks, the nature of the industry still has a long way to go before we can, as a whole, catch up with these threats. It’s important for us to define what the current information security and cybersecurity industry look like considering these alarming 15 Cyber Security Facts and Stats.
1. 95% of breached records came from only three industries in 2016
Government, retail, and technology. The reason isn’t necessarily because those industries are less diligent in their protection of customer records. They’re just very popular targets because of the high level of personal identifying information contained in their records.
2. There is a hacker attack every 39 seconds
A Clark School study at the University of Maryland is one of the first to quantify the near-constant rate of hacker attacks of computers with Internet access— every 39 seconds on average, affecting one in three Americans every year —and the non-secure usernames and passwords we use that give attackers more chance of success.
3. 43% of cyber attacks target small business
64% of companies have experienced web-based attacks. 62% experienced phishing & social engineering attacks. 59% of companies experienced malicious code and botnets and 51% experienced denial of service attacks. small organizations (those with fewer than 500 employees) spend an average of $7.68 million per incident.
4. The global average cost of a data breach is $3.9 million across SMBs
For most businesses this is sum is crippling – not only monetarily but in reputation. For public companies, the cost is much greater since more is at stake, on average a data breach at a publicly-traded company would cost $116 million.
5. Since COVID-19, the US FBI reported a 300% increase in reported cybercrimes
As if a pandemic wasn’t scary enough, hackers leveraged the opportunity to attack vulnerable networks as office work moved to personal homes. As of this summer, they recorded 12,377 Covid-related scams.
6. 9.7 Million Records healthcare records were compromised in September 2020 alone
According to the HIPAA Journal, “83 breaches were attributed to hacking/IT incidents and 9,662,820 records were exposed in those breaches”.
7. Human intelligence and comprehension is the best defense against phishing attacks
According to Cofense thwarting phishing attempts comes down to user behavior and understanding is the best way to protect your business against some of the most common hacking methods.
8. Approximately $6 trillion is expected to be spent globally on cybersecurity by 2021
Organizations need to make a fundamental change in their approach to cybersecurity and reprioritize budgets to align with this newly defined reality of our modern society.
9. Connected IoT devices will reach 75 billion by 2025
The IoT market is due to reach 31 billion connected devices this year in 2020 and by 2025 it will be roughly 75 billion IoT devices.
10. Unfilled cybersecurity jobs worldwide is already over 4 million
More than 500,000 cybersecurity jobs in the U.S. are unfilled, and postings are up 74% over the past five years. Of those jobs, cybersecurity engineers are some of the highest-paid positions started at $140K annually on average.
11. 95% of cybersecurity breaches are due to human error
Cyber-criminals and hackers will infiltrate your company through your weakest link, which is almost never in the IT department.
12. More than 77% of organizations do not have a Cyber Security Incident Response plan
What’s worse? An estimated 54% of companies say they have experienced one or more attacks in the last 12 months.
13. Most companies take nearly 6 months to detect a data breach, even major ones
Equifax, Capital One, and Facebook just to name a few. Information such as passwords, credit card details, and social security numbers may already be compromised by the time you’re notified.
14. Share prices fall 7.27% on average after a breach
The lowest point occurring up to 14 market days after a breach. Finance and payment companies saw the largest drop in share performance post-breach according to Comparitech.
15. Total cost for cybercrime committed globally will reach $6 trillion by 2021
Cybercrime is one of the greatest threats. Don’t think that all that money comes from hackers targeting corporations, banks or wealthy celebrities. Individual users like you and me are also targets. As long as you’re connected to the Internet, you can become a victim of cyberattacks.
What does it all mean?
Ginni Rometty, IBM’s chairman, president and CEO, said: “Cybercrime is the greatest threat to every company in the world.” And she was right. During the next five years, cybercrime might become the greatest threat to every person, place and thing in the world. With evolving technology comes evolving hackers. Our best defense is to stay informed and learn from, albeit scary, but useful cybersecurity statistics and facts.
Understanding the cyber terminology, threats and opportunities is critical for every person in every business across all industries. By providing advanced cyber training and education solutions in all departments of your business, from marketing and sales to IT and InfoSec, you are investing in your company’s protection against cyber threats.
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