Cyber Security
Last year was a year like no other in a variety of ways—none more significant than its effect on businesses large and small. The abrupt shift to remote work and the sudden pivot to cloud-based platforms meant then, as it does now, that cybersecurity has never been more important for day-to-day operations.
The truth is businesses like yours are at risk—increasingly so—every day. There’s just no other way to say it, and the latest 2020 statistics compiled by Comparitech and Varonis back it up.
I combed through many, but wanted to share a few that stood out—one above all the rest: “Since the pandemic began, the FBI reported a 300% increase in reported cybercrimes.” (IMC Grupo).
That stat alone is enough reason to revisit your cybersecurity measures at work, but here are few others I found eye-opening as well:
- Cloud-based cyber attacks rose 630% between January and April 2020. (Fintech News)
- Almost 50% of business PCs and 53% of consumer PCs that got infected once were re-infected within the same year. (2020 Webroot Threat Report)
- The average cost of a data breach was $3.86 million as of 2020 and the average time to identify a breach in 2020 was 207 days. (IBM)
- Remote work increased the average cost of a data breach by $137,000. (IBM)
- On average, only 5% of companies’ folders are adequately protected. (Varonis)
- Hackers are attacking computers and networks at a rate of one attack every 39 seconds. (University of Maryland)
- 63% of network invasions are the result of compromised user passwords and usernames. (Microsoft)
- U.S. ransomware attacks cost an estimated $7.5 billion in 2019. (Emsisoft)
- The average ransomware payment rose 33% in 2020 over 2019, to $111,605. (Fintech News)
- Almost 200 million ransomware attacks occurred in the first nine months of 2020, representing a significant increase over the previous year. (SonicWall).
These new statistics are haunting. It behooves you to take the necessary steps in light of the above statistics.