It’s that time of year again. The air is getting colder, leaves are starting to fall, and kids in costumes are running from door to door. Before you turn on the next horror movie and jump at the slightest bump in the night, take a moment to read these truly scary facts about cyber security.
The most terrifying part about reading these grave statistics is that they appear to get worse every year. In the event your company needs a little motivation to pay more attention to your cyber security measures, please take a close look at these spine-chilling cyber security facts!
According to cyber security experts, a cyber attack occurs at least every 30 seconds with about 4,000 ransomware attacks a day (a 36% increase in 2017), and these numbers are projected to get worse.
Microsoft predicts that the potential cost of worldwide cybercrime will soon rise to $500 billion and a data breach will cost the average company almost $4 million.
According to the National Cyber Security Alliance, up to 60% of small and medium-sized businesses that suffer a significant cyberattack will go out of business within six months.
1 in 131 emails contains malware, and Panda security reports that 230,000 new malware samples are being produced every day. 58% of malware attacks are targeted at small businesses.
Microsoft estimates that 63% of all network intrusions and data breaches are because of compromised user credentials.
92% of malware is delivered through email, and Symantec reports that 88% of hacker emails use malicious attachments to deliver their attack.
According to the Ponemon Institute, only 21% of small and medium-sized businesses rate their ability to withstand cyberattacks as highly effective with a humbling 81% reporting that hackers have successfully evaded their cybersecurity measures.
Microsoft estimates that the average cybercriminal spends about 146 days within a network before being detected. Other reports put this depressing figure closer to 200 days.
IBM reported that the most rapidly growing cybersecurity threat is from crypto mining, which is malware designed to take over a system’s resources in order to mine cryptocurrency without the victim’s knowledge.
The steadily growing amount of cybercrime will correspondingly increase the need for cybersecurity professionals to deal with these threats. However, according to CSO, the number of unfilled cybersecurity jobs is expected to increase from 1 million in 2016 to 3.5 million in 2021.
To put a little perspective on how seriously business leaders feel about growing cyber security threats, in a recent interview Warren Buffet mentioned that he considered cybersecurity threats a greater threat to mankind than nuclear war. If that doesn’t scare you, check out the facts below!
