Cybersecurity Month
Safeguarding against cybercrime was already an important business issue before the pandemic sent remote work soaring. As hybrid and work-from-home environments have become the new norm, shoring up cybersecurity has taken on even greater significance.
The truth is, cybercriminals are happy to exploit any vulnerabilities in your company’s network and are constantly changing tactics to accomplish their goals.
In fact, threat groups are more similar to legitimate business ventures than one might think, according to security experts. They essentially behave like a corporation, with revenue goals, specialized teams to exploit their targets, and effective attack techniques and valuable intel shared across organizations.
The statistics tell a sobering story:
- Global cybercrime costs are expected to reach $10.5 trillion annually by 2025, up from $3 trillion in 2015 [1]
- Cyberattacks increased 125 percent globally in 2021, according to the World Economic Forum [2]
- 86 percent of breaches in 2020 were caused by malicious attacks with financial motivation [3]
- 28 percent of data breaches in 2020 involved small businesses [4]
- According to the FBI’s IC3, as of 2020 phishing is by far the most common attack performed by cybercriminals [5]
- By September 2020, the average ransom payment peaked at $233,817 [6]
In the face of this growing issue, the U.S. President and Congress declared October to be Cybersecurity Awareness Month beginning in 2004. During that month, the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the National Cybersecurity Alliance (NCA) lead a collaborative effort between government and industry to raise cybersecurity awareness nationally and internationally.
As part of LightEdge’s participation in the 2022 national effort, we’ve put together resources discussing cybersecurity issues and best practices. Our digital kit is designed to help users defend against cybercrime whether they are working fully remote, in the office, or a combination of both. This free downloadable information can be accessed here.
Statistic resources can be found here:
[3] Verizon 2020 DBIR: More Extensive, More Detailed and More Thorough Than Ever | SecurityWeek.Com
[5] Top cybersecurity statistics, trends, and facts | CSO Online
[6] Ransomware, BEC and Phishing Still Top Concerns, per 2021 Threat Report | Webroot
