As we approach the dawning of another year, cybersecurity has become more important than ever. Anyone can see that just about everything is becoming digital, as well as the fact that the internet is a bigger part of our lives than ever. The “internet of things” is another big development that brings these two factors together and which will likely continue to grow in 2021. While we cannot predict the future, we can certainly look at present trends and extrapolate the most likely future. So, let’s do that right now by looking at 20 must-know cybersecurity statistics for 2020.
1. Deepfake Scams: A $250 Million Problem in 2020
This may be one of the most disturbing items on our list. As part of their 2020 cybersecurity predictions, Forrester predicts that the costs associated with deepfake scams are going to cost the world more than $250 million this year.
2. Cybersecurity Spending Is Expected To Top $1 Billion Next Year
Based on the rapid growth of the cybersecurity industry, and the increase in threats, companies are spending a lot of money on security. Based on current trends, experts predict that total spending will exceed $1 billion by 2021.
3. More Cybersecurity Professionals Are Needed
As cybersecurity grows more and more important, more and more people are needed for security-related jobs. Some experts estimate that there are as many as 4 million unfilled cybersecurity jobs out there, so it’s a great time to learn about this kind of thing!
4. Most Companies Are Not Protecting Their Files
This data from Varonis indicates that most corporate files remain unprotected. Their numbers say that, on average, only about 5% of the folders on company devices will be protected.
5. Most Hackers Just Want Money
It has become politically fashionable to blame things on shadowy espionage hacking, but this kind of thing is not that common. According to these numbers, about 71% of all data breaches in 2019 were motivated by profit while only 25% were related to espionage.
6. Hackers steal 75 records every second
These facts show us the average number of records stolen per second. Breaches, in general, are actually rare, but when they happen, as we have seen, there are a lot of records that get stolen all at once. (Source: Breach Level Index)
7. Small Businesses Are More Vulnerable
Hackers tend to look for soft targets, and most small businesses fit the bill. According to these statistics, about 43% of all cyberattacks target small businesses. Thus, they are probably more likely to be targeted.
8. Most Business Leaders Are Conscious Of The Threat
According to this cybercrime report from Accenture, about 68% of business leaders (CEOs, executives, board members, etc.) feel that the risk of a cyberattack is getting worse and that the risk will continue to increase. They are probably right.
9. IoT Devices Are Very Vulnerable
“Smart devices” are all the rage right now, but a lot of them aren’t that smart when it comes to security. In a single month, Symantec recorded 5,200 attacks upon a single connected device.
10. Cryptomining Will Continue To Be Weaponized
Cryptomining involves your computer’s resources being forcibly allocated to make money for someone else. Obviously, this will slow your computer down quite a bit, and all so that some hacker can make an extra 50 cents per day. According to this research, about 90% of all remote code execution attacks involved cryptomining.
11. Phishing Is Still A Huge Problem
Email phishing remains one of the biggest attack vectors, accounting for a lot of money loss in any given year. According to these statistics, phishing costs businesses about $17,700 every minute.
12. Small Businesses Can Lose Millions From A Data Breach
The average cost of a data breach (for a small business) is about $3.9 million. This report details the numbers, and you can see why so many SMBs have been forced to shut their doors after a disastrous hacking incident.
13. Publicly Traded Companies Can Lose A Lot More
Small businesses are more likely to be targeted by hackers, but a large and publicly-traded company stands to lose a lot more. If they should happen to be the victim of a data breach, the average cost is about $116 million, according to the same report from our last section.
14. Most Data Breaches Are Caused By Human Error
There are plenty of skilled hackers out there, but they don’t always have to be super-smart. In most cases, hackers exploit the less-knowledgeable members of a company to gain illicit access. In other cases, employees cause data breaches just by mishandling sensitive data/devices. This research indicates that about 90% of all data breaches are the result of human error alone.
15. Most Breaches Are Not Noticed Immediately
Unfortunately, most breaches of online security go unnoticed for quite a while, and some are never found at all. According to IBM, it takes about 206 days (on average) for a data breach to be discovered. The average time from breach to containment is about 314 days.
16. Insider Threats Are Very Real
If you are paranoid about insider hacking, you are probably justified. According to Verizon, about 34% of all data breaches were the result of deliberate internal actions. That certainly isn’t the majority of cases, but it’s still a very common occurrence.
17. Traditional Antivirus Isn’t Working Anymore
69% of organizations don’t believe the threats they’re seeing can be blocked by their anti-virus software. (Ponemon Institute)
18. Cyber Criminals Are Using The Covid-19 Pandemic To Their Advantage
Lately, there has been a huge upsurge in coronavirus-related internet scams, as you can see from this Interpol report. Over a period of four months, they recorded almost a million spam messages, 737 malware incidents, and 48,000 links to suspicious websites.
19. Healthcare Organizations Are Often Targeted
If this report from the Herjavec group is correct, the majority of healthcare organizations have been hacked at one time or another. They say that a little more than 93% of all such organizations have been the victim of an attack within the last three years, and 57% of them have had more than five within that same period.
20. Cybercrime Is Increasing Exponentially
Due to this report from 2019, breaches of cybersecurity had increased by 11% since the previous year and had increased 67% within the previous five years. There is every reason to believe that the rate of increase will not slow down anytime soon.
Conclusion
At PCH Technologies, we like our customers to be well-informed about all the latest threats and protective measures. We hope that these statistics have been relevant and helpful to you and that all your most important questions have been answered. If not, you can always call us at (856) 754-7500.