Cybersecurity Stats to Know & Use to Impact Change

Reports of cyber threats and cybercrime are daily occurrences in the daily news feeds. As attacks on consumers and businesses grow, the sense of urgency to implement cybersecurity measures only increases.

Here are some stats gathered from a recent Forbes article to help build your case for increased priority, training and budget for cybersecurity initiatives at your business:

• 64% of senior IT professionals that say their senior leadership does not sees cybersecurity as a strategic priority (Raytheon and Ponemon Institute).
• 68% of cybersecurity professionals that say their CEO demands DevOps and security teams not do anything that slows the business down (ThreatStack).
• 68% of senior IT professionals that say their boards of directors are not being briefed on what their organizations are doing to prevent or mitigate the consequences of a cyber-attack (Raytheon and Ponemon Institute).
• 66% of senior IT professionals that believe their organization will experience a data breach or cybersecurity exploit that will seriously diminish its shareholder value (Raytheon and Ponemon Institute).
• 100% of all businesses experienced a mobile malware attack (Check Point).
• 53 - the average number of phishing attacks per month per 100 mobile devices used by employees at asset management and investment firms (Wandera).
• 35.5 to 106 million - the range of the number of users malware has reached in 2017, most of whom downloaded the malware directly from 300+ apps on Google Play (Check Point).
• 93 % increase in ransomware attacks against consumers from 2016 to 2017 (and ransomware against businesses was up 90%) (Malwarebytes).
• $14.5 billion emails laced with malware were sent in 2017 (AppRiver).
• 132% increase in the volume of adware (automatically displaying or downloading advertisements and redirecting searches to advertising websites to collect marketing data) from 2016 to 2017, accounting for 40% of consumer threat detections, up from less than 20% in 2016 (Malwarebytes).
• 428,643 healthcare records were compromised in January 2018, the third consecutive month where the number of breached records increased month over month (January 2018 Healthcare Data Breach Report).
• $380 is the cost per leaked record in the healthcare sector in 2017(Ponemon Institute).
• $18.5 billion will be spent on security outsourcing services in 2018, up 11% from 2017 (Gartner).
• 44% of developers that are not trained in secure coding (and 42% of operations staff are not trained in basic security practices) (ThreatStack).

It’s time to take a strong, proactive position for cybersecurity with your business. Remember...while “Cybersecurity... can never be solved entirely. Fix one hole, the bad guys find another. It’s a ping-pong match for hackers,” as stated by Steve Duplessie, you have to stand and work diligently to stay ahead of the bad guys. Your business, its data and revenue rely on it.

To best review your business needs, confer with an agnostic technology agent or consultant to gain a deeper overview of the wide range of solutions and how each one fits in with what you’re trying to accomplish. In addition to assisting you with procurement, they can also handle ongoing care.

About Simplicity

Simplicity VoIP, based in Richmond, VA, provides hosted PBX, VoIP and business telephone solutions nationally to small, medium, and enterprise-level businesses for a comprehensive unified communications experience. Two distinct Class 5 geo-redundant VoIP platforms are offered in addition to fax-to-email, phones and equipment, and managed services. Named as Richmond’s 11th fastest growing company by Richmond BizSense, Simplicity VoIP’s key to success is its on-site service, installation and training supported 24/7/365 by a world-class client services team.