The world is never short of thieves and people with a criminal mind. It is because of these people we need protection at all levels. Whether it is for homes, private companies, and organizations or at government level. In fact the greater the value, the greater the threat hence, there are some security measures that we need to take and have a ransomware recovery plan in place.
As technology is advancing, we don’t only require the protection from thieves breaking into companies and offices for stealing the valuables, but also, from hackers breaking into computers, networks, programs, electronic and digital devices and stealing data.
Cybersecurity threats and attacks have led organizations to realize the importance of cybersecurity, which is defined by Merriam-Webster Dictionary as, ‘measures taken to protect a computer or computer system against cyber-attacks’.
Ever since the data leaks in the giants like Facebook and Uber, the awareness regarding cyber security has increased 10 folds. Organizations should develop familiarity with the cybersecurity threats to have a strong ransomware recovery plan against such attacks. Year by year, these threats are increasing in number and smartness, and we expect the same trend in the year 2019.
According to Norton Security, cybercriminals will be stealing a total of 33 billion records a year, by the year 2023.
Major Cybersecurity Trends in 2019
- Internet of things (IOT) – Cyber-attacks based on Internet of things has increased by 600% in 2017 alone. According to Forcepoint, Industrial IoT devices are most vulnerable to attack by breach in the cloud infrastructure.
- Cloud-based attacks- According to Microsoft cloud-based attacks increased by 300% in 2017.
- Ransomware – demanding ransom to release hacked data. With prevalent cryptocurrency, ransomware has become easier for hackers as it cannot be traced. According to the Barkley Team in 2019, ransomware will cost businesses $11.5 billion a year.
- Phishing- in the year 2017, the most widely used method to spread infection and viruses in devices was spear-phishing emails, it is used by 71 percent of the cyber attacking groups.
- Software vulnerabilities- software security is expected to be the most vulnerable field in the year 2019.
Cybersecurity Costs
- The growth of information security market in 2019 is expected to be 8.7% to $124bn, expenditure on consultation and implementation services related to privacy legislation. (Computer Weekly)
- A successful cyber attack costs over $5 million, in other words $301 per employee. (Ponemon)
- Information loss acquires 43 percent of the total cost of cyber attacks and is costly. (Accenture)
- Cybercrime damage is expected to reach $6 trillion per year by 2021. (CyberSecurity Ventures)
- The total cost of the Equifax breach to the company was over $4 billion. (Time)
- Two of the most expensive attack types are Malware and web-based attacks, with an average of US $2.4 million spent by companies on them. (Accenture)
Keeping in view the severity of the cyber threats posed on organizations, it is imperative that companies are fully aware of these threats and have separate wing for cybersecurity jobs and positions, where specialized people work to strengthen the immunization of the organization for protection against cybercrimes and should ransomware recovery plans in place.
