The internet, which is exciting and helpful for human resources, is becoming dangerous in today’s world. According to Cybersecurity Ventures, the damage caused by cybercrime is predicted to reach $6 trillion by 2021. Below are some more numbers and must-know facts highlighting the importance of cybersecurity.
The Overall Impact of Cybercrimes
There are multiple facets to cybersecurity, but let us start with its overall impact on industries and the global economy.
- 68% of businesses fear their data risks are increasing gradually. (Accenture)
- The government, tech, and retail are victims in 95% of cyberattacks. (Varonis)
- Roughly 1 in 3 open phishing emails in the U.S., with again 12% clicking on the infected links or attachments. (Verizona)
- Over 53% of the millennials were the victims of cybercrime recently. (Arabian Business)
- Approximately 95% of cloud security failures result in the fault of the customer. (Gartner)
Hopefully, the above stats tell you where to start to improvise the security posture of your business.
Data Breaches
Data breaches uncover all the sensitive information of users, leaving them at risk of identity theft, or destroy the long-built reputation of companies, and leave them liable for compliance violations. While the United States focus more on it, the number of data breaches are also growing alongside.
- Over 130 large-scale data breach happens annually, with the number rising by 27%. (Accenture)
- 1 billion data was exposed of breach in the Q1 of 2019. (RiskBased)
- Around 71% of these attacks were financially interested, whereas 25% were targeted by spying. (Verizon)
- 52% of breaches included hacking, 32–33% were phishing or social engineering, and 28% were malware. (Verizon)
In case, if your industry has its data breached, be ready to lose about $4 million down the drain, as per a recent report by Security Intelligence. Any given company worldwide has to invest large amount of time to address the issues. However, if your company is based out in the U.S, the cost will double, making it $7.91 million.
Given this fact, the companies consume minimum of six months to detect the breach, so we recommend you to stay safer by employing strong preventive measures.
Compliance and Government Laws
It is more dangerous than ever for the companies overlooking the data breaches and other security errors. As stricter rules are passed in various regions across the globe, the consequences will be severe if they fail to abide by it. Some of the robust regulations that emerged in recent years include the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California’s California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). If you did not know,
- Over 88% of companies spent beyond $1 million for their GDPR readiness. (CSO Online)
- In the first year of enforcement, 89,000 data breaches recorded, and 144,000 complaints filed with GDPR enforcement agencies. (EDPB)
- Google had to pay a $57 billion fine for its GDPR violations. (TechCrunch)
- Over 1,000 news sources blocked all its EU readers to protect themselves from the GDPR penalty. (Nieman Lab)
So, keep in mind that inadequate data security can cost you even if your data is not breached or hacked by cybercriminals. The newly emerged regulations are increasingly making insecure data practices financially risky.
Facts on Security Spending
Global cybersecurity spending in 2020 will reach an all-time high, and these costs associated with cybercrimes can sometimes be crippling to industries that failed to prioritize security over other elements. The more number of decision-makers and top-level executives are realizing the importance of cybersecurity investments, and thereby spending more on it.
- The average data breach cost is $3.9 million. (IBM)
- $2.6 million is the average cost of malware attack. (Accenture)
- $150 is the average cost per data stolen. (IBM)
- Over half of the large enterprises are investing more than $1 million annually on cybersecurity. (Cisco)
- The U.S and the Middle East spend more on post-data breach activities. The cost comes around $1.56 million in the U.S. and $1.43 million in the Middle East. (Ponemon Institute)
This shows how cybersecurity is experiencing unrelenting growth and moving towards the big market. In short, we can expect 14-15% YoY cybersecurity market growth by next year, compared to the 8-10% growth foreseen by analysts.
Final Note
The above figures are primarily intended to be a wakeup call for businesses relying on storing sensitive data online. It potentially speaks about the challenging reality one has to face if their security system is overlooked. However, with the utilization of the right strategy and sophisticated methods, one can see a promising future in terms of cybersecurity.
