May 17, 2018
The statistics are staggering. Cryptojacking attacks up by 8,500%. IoT device attacks up by 600%. Software supply chain attacks up by 200%. With each passing year, the volume of attacks rises, as does their diversity. Attackers are working hard to discover new avenues to infiltrate and finding ingenious ways to cover their tracks in the process.
So how significant are the implications of these cyber crimes? We explored the Cybersecurity Ventures 2017 Official Cybercrime Report, sponsored by the Herjavec Group.
You may want to take a seat before you read on. Then take a deep breath and carefully assess gaps in your security strategy, because the experts agree it’s no longer a question of “if” you’ll be attacked, it’s a question of “when.”
Cyber Crime Expected To Double To $6 Trillion In Next 4 Years
As if the increase in types and numbers of attacks weren’t mind-boggling enough, the costs are out of this world. According to Cybersecurity Ventures and CSOOnline.com, who provided an analysis of the 2017 report in their highly-regarded article, cyber crime damages will cost the world $6 trillion annually by 2021, up from $3 trillion in 2015. “This represents the greatest transfer of economic wealth in history, risks the incentives for innovation and investment, and will be more profitable than the global trade of all major illegal drugs combined,” says CSOOnline.com author Steve Morgan. At the enterprise level, the average cost of a cyber attack grew to $1.3 million in 2017, and the average cost for SMBs was about $117K. These costs are only expected to rise.
Approaching 0% Unemployment Rate In Cyber Security Jobs
Cyber security jobs are predicted to reach 3.5 million by 2021. There’s already a shortage of security skills today, and this will only get worse in the coming years based on data being provided from universities. Organizations are scrambling to fill gaps by cross training IT workers, but that’s simply not enough given the sheer volume of applications, data, devices, infrastructure and people that require protecting and defending. Humans can’t keep up.
Such skills shortages could be catastrophic to organizations and industries, like healthcare and retail, which have been hit hard by cyber crime. To address some of these challenges, organizations are turning to managed IT services providers like Mindsight to gain expertise and peace of mind.
The Internet Of People To Reach 6 Billion
In 2017, there were 3.8 billion internet users, just over half of the world’s population of 7 billion. According to Cybersecurity Ventures, there will be over 6 billion internet users by 2022, or 75% of the world population of 8 billion. And by 2030, over 7.5 billion internet users, which is 90% of the world population of 8.5 million, including individuals six years of age and older. Such significant growth in internet users will increasingly make individuals like you and me targets for cyber criminals.
Ransomware Is Big; Coin Mining Is Bigger – Exploding by 8,500%
Ransomware damage increased by a factor of 15 from 2015 to 2017, going from $325 million to over $5 billion. According to Cybersecurity Ventures, ransomware damage costs are expected to rise to $11.5 billion by 2019, with businesses falling victim to ransomware attacks every 14 seconds. Healthcare organizations are big targets, with the numbers of attacks quadrupling by 2020.
There’s no doubt that cyber criminals have been focused on ransomware for revenue generation, but in the last year, they have turned their focus to other opportunities – like crypto currency. The coin mining goldrush saw an 8,500% increase in detections of coinminers on endpoint computers in 2017. Cyber criminals are using coinminers to hijack computer processing power and cloud CPU usage from companies and consumers to mine crypto currency. System performance suffers the immediate impact, but for enterprises, the effects could be significant. Corporate networks risk shutdown, posing serious financial ramifications.
Cyber Security Spending Expected to Exceed $1 Trillion
According to Gartner, information security spending grew to $86.4 billion in 2017, a figure that does not even include internet of things (IoT), industrial IoT and industrial control systems (ICS) security, automotive security and other cyber security categories. In the next four years, global spending on cyber security products and services is expected to exceed $1 trillion. Companies are increasingly looking at IT security as an investment, with security budgets reaching 18% for enterprises in 2017, versus 16% in 2016. Smaller businesses with limited resources are also investing more in IT security budgets, with 14% investment in 2017 compared to 13% in 2016.
“Cyber Crime is the Greatest Threat to Every Company in the World”
In 2015, IBM’s CEO stated, “Cyber crime is the greatest threat to every company in the world.” According to Cybersecurity Ventures and CSOOnline.com, cyber crime could become the greatest threat to all of us in the next five years. Mindsight has been delivering IT and consulting services to companies large and small for nearly 15 years, and in the last 2-3 years alone, we’ve seen a staggering number of organizations targeted by cyber criminals. Some have sustained significant losses. The threats are very real and as stated above, it’s no longer a question of “if,” it’s a question of “when” your organization will be impacted.
Mindsight works very closely with clients to ensure a long-term, multi-layer security strategy. Our security-as-a-service offerings provide a robust suite of tools to protect environments from cyber threats, increase network reliability and visibility, and deliver peace of mind. If you’d like to learn more about Mindsight’s security, disaster recovery and backup services, contact us today.
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About Mindsight
Mindsight, a Chicago IT services provider, is an extension of your team. Our culture is built on transparency and trust, and our team is made up of extraordinary people – the kinds of people you would hire. We have one of the largest expert-level engineering teams delivering the full spectrum of IT services and solutions, from cloud to infrastructure, collaboration to contact center. Our highly-certified engineers and process-oriented excellence have certainly been key to our success. But what really sets us apart is our straightforward and honest approach to every conversation, whether it is for an emerging business or global enterprise. Our customers rely on our thought leadership, responsiveness, and dedication to solving their toughest technology challenges.
Contact us at GoMindsight.com.
For Further Reading
Meet Mindsight’s Security Solutions Architect (And Ethical Hacker), Mishaal Khan