The cost to organizations of cyber attacks has reached staggering levels and is increasing at an alarming rate. According to ForgeRock, the cost to (U.S.) organizations in 2018 of data breaches was $654 billion. This was the result of cybercriminals exposing 2.8 billion consumer data records. Those exposed records turned into 2.8 billion opportunities for cybercriminals to commit fraud online.
According to the report, the types of data exposed broke down into:
Date of birth and/or Social Insurance Number: 21.6%
Name & physical address: 20%
Personal health information: 18.4%
Other: 16.2%
Payment/banking information: 12.2%
Name & email address: 7.8%
Username/password: 3.8%
An example of the rate of increase of these data breaches is evident in the U.S. financial services industry where the cost in Q1 2019 alone jumped to $6.2 billion, up from only $8 million in the same quarter of 2018.
Despite the $114 billion spent by U.S. organizations on information security products and services in 2018, cybercriminals continue to attack and find a way in. The most frequent methods of gaining access to data was from unauthorized access (34.2%), followed by Ransomware/Malware/Phishing attacks (30.6%)
When planning their cyber security strategy, organizations must have the mindset of how they will manage when an attack occurs, not if. These threats must be taken seriously. Only by putting best practices, policies and procedures in place will cyberattacks be more likely thwarted, or at least have their impact minimized.
To download a free copy of BSC Solutions Group’s “7 Critical Components of a Cyber Security Strategy”, go to https://bscsg.com/cyber-security/
