Spooky cybersecurity statistics to help you prepare for the worst!

A cyberattack is a scary event. It can shut down businesses, cripple governments and incapacitate entire countries if the right measures are not taken against it. This Halloween we bring you eight cybersecurity statistics that emphasize the dangers of cyber threats. 

  1. 43% of cyberattacks are targeted towards small and midsize businesses (SMBs) – A few years ago, only large organizations were being targeted by cyber-criminals. That is unfortunately no longer the case and SMBs are increasingly targeted. SMBs struggle with IT budget constraints and lack proper cyber-security resources and hackers seem to be ware of this disparity.
  2. 29% of breaches involved the use of stolen credentials – Compromised passwords are a threat to any business. Tighten your password security protocols and implement authentication methods like two-factor authentication (2FA) and single sign-on (SSO) for maximized security
  3. On average, small companies lose over $100,000.00 per ransomware incident – Ransomware has been on the rise for the past couple of years knocking out city services and forcing others to revert to paper records. The effects of a ransomware attack can be very damaging to a small or midsize business and stretch far beyond the costs of downtime and recovery.
  4. 32% of the data breaches involved phishing activity – Phishing was present in 78% of cyber-espionage incidents in 2019. Phishing is a method of trying to gather personal information mostly using deceptive emails. Organizations can avoid phishing attacks by training their employees on identifying phishing emails and reporting any phishing activity.
  5. Negligence-based insider threat incidents cost organizations an average of $3.8 million per year – An insider threat involving a negligent employee or contractor can average $283,281 per incident. The average cost more than doubles if the incident involves an imposter or thief who steals credentials.
  6. Privileged users are the biggest insider threats for 55% of organizations – Unintentional exposure of privileged credentials can increase the threat surface of your environment. Please make sure you set up alerts for unusual logins, user sessions or access requests.
  7. Global Cybercrime damage costs projected to hit $6 trillion by 2021 – Cybercrime damage costs include: theft of personal and financial data, fraud, post-attack disruption to the normal course of business, forensic investigation, restoration and deletion of hacked data and systems, and reputational harm.
  8. 3.5 million unfilled cybersecurity jobs predicted by 2021 – The cybersecurity skill gap is a real and major threat to organizations. 53% of organizations report a problematic shortage of cybersecurity skills. Address the skill gap by implementing cybersecurity training or partner with academic institutions to nurture cybersecurity talent.

A large number of organizations still remain unprepared for a cyberattack – please be proactive and prepare now by contacting us – we can help you by implementing 2FA; roll out company wide security training campaigns and help you tighten security protocols.