The State of Cybersecurity For Businesses And Organizations
With each passing year, the threat of cyberattacks increases. With the ongoing pandemic, cybercrime has only increased. It is because hackers and scammers make use of vulnerabilities in people’s behavior to their benefit.
As a result, we see more organizations invest in cybersecurity than ever before. Despite this, many believe that these efforts are not enough, that more needs to be done.
With hackers coming up with ingenious ways to conduct cybercrime, organizations need to invest in more sophisticated cybersecurity measures.
One of the easiest ways to invest in cybersecurity and make it worthwhile is through employee training. Poor security practices of employees often lead to huge losses for a company.
Hence, employee training is essential to reduce the risk of cyberattacks. In addition to this, improving network security can help companies in preventing cyberattacks.
Compromise assessments are a technique that IT specialists use to analyze network vulnerabilities.
It assesses the strength of the endpoints in a network and is an in-depth analysis of networks across an enterprise. Compromise assessment should be part of cybersecurity measures taken by an organization regularly.
It is a cost-effective method that is fast. It takes a few hours for a compromise assessment. Since network breaches are common, compromise assessments become a necessity.
On the user end, investing in application security can prevent hackers from obtaining valuable data from customers.
Cybersecurity statistics: what does it mean for businesses:
Cybercrime is up by 600%
The COVID-19 pandemic has had varying impacts on different industries. Some industries have prospered, while others have experienced tremendous blows.
Cybercrime has gone up by 600% during the pandemic. Scammers used social engineering techniques and posed as people from WHO (World Health Organization) and CDC (Center for Disease Prevention).
These types of phishing attempts can cause public distrust in government and global organizations.
Most phishing attempts are through email. Hence, if you click on a file attachment or link in a malicious email, it can lead to an attack on your system. It downloads the virus on your laptop or phone. It may begin collecting personal information leading to the theft of data.
For companies, such a type of cyberattack can be disastrous for the company. It damages the reputation, leads to financial losses, loss of customers, and theft of private data.
Hence, companies must invest in cybersecurity measures.
Remote work has increased the cost of data breaches
With remote work becoming the norm in 2020, many companies experienced data breaches because of unsafe networks. According to IBM, the average cost of the data breach was $1.07 million higher for remote work than instances when remote work was not a factor.
Several reasons may have led to this. For one, in remote work, each employee is connected to a different Wi-Fi network. Hence, employees are not connected to a unified WIFI network, which makes network breaches easy.
It is also possible that employees are connected to public Wi-Fi, which isn’t safe.
Employees may also be using their systems that lack antivirus and other mechanisms for controlling cyberattacks. Hence, it makes them prone to cybercrime.
78% of companies believe that their Cybersecurity posture is inadequate
Even though companies are investing in IT infrastructure, many believe that it is inadequate to prevent cyberattacks. Due to various reasons, including challenges posed by working from home.
However, in the survey by Insight, 100% of respondents believe that the top management is more aware of cyberattacks and is better prepared to deal with them.
As a result of this, many companies have increased finances for cybersecurity purposes.
91% of companies have increased funding for Cybersecurity in 2021
With each passing year, hackers and scammers use unique techniques to steal data from reputable organizations. As a result, many customers have a lack of confidence in companies. Also, with increased awareness regarding cybercrime and its outcomes, organizations feel a need to increase their funding.
Moreover, increased spending in cybersecurity means that organizations are better prepared to counter cyber-attacks. It does not mean that cybersecurity risks are less than before.
According to the survey by Insight, about 61% of organizations are integrating incident response in their business continuity plan. Despite these efforts, employees feel that companies need to do more.
Cyberattacks against small businesses rose by 424% in the last year
Small businesses are vulnerable to security breaches and cyberattacks. Small-scale companies often lack the resources to invest heavily in cybersecurity.
Hence, it makes them easier prey. Also, small businesses have data that hackers can use to intimate customers and use to their benefit.
In some cases, small businesses can lead hackers to larger organizations.
A cyberattack against a small business can be disastrous. It can be difficult for such companies to recover after a cyberattack.
Hence, small-scale companies should invest in cybersecurity measures and train their staff to prevent such attacks. Small businesses are vulnerable to ransomware. A survey conducted by Datto confirms this.
Over 1400 Managed Service Providers (MSP) were surveyed. About 85% of them reported that ransomware was the most common type of malware threat.
In ransomware, a hacker will ask the victim to pay a certain amount in a given amount of time.
One of the leading causes of ransomware is the lack of training among employees. Having poor passwords and poor user practices leads to an increase in ransomware attacks.
60% of companies shut down as a result of a Cyberattack
About 60% of companies go out of business within six months as a consequence of a cyberattack. It includes small and medium-scale businesses. SMBs are often the easiest target for hackers.
The US Security and Exchange Commission reported this statistic in 2015. Numbers have likely increased since then.
Conclusion
All types of organizations and businesses face the threat of a cyberattack. While financial losses are the most common, damage to a company’s reputation is the worst. Within the last few years, companies have undergone significant shifts in cybersecurity policy. However, more needs to be done.