Introduction.

The following statistics presented in this article is the main reason why Cyber Security is an integral part our Fully Managed IT Support Service at OhSo Technical.

2017 was the worst year for Cyber Crime. 

The number of Cyber Crime instances has been growing at a colossal rate over the past five years and statistically, 2017 was the worst year EVER for data breaches and Cyberattacks, which is mainly down to ransomware. Indeed, the UK experienced its worst ever Cyberattack on home soil in 2017 when the NHS was infiltrated by the infamous Wannacry virus, which infected as many as 300,000 Computers and crippled our Health Service for days.

In this article.

We present some of the most alarming Cyber Security figures and statistics that will make you realise just how important it is to ensure your Business Continuity by protecting your business data with the latest Cyber Security Products, Services and Solutions.

1. Over 43% of UK Businesses experienced a Cyber Security Breach in the last 12 months.

According to the Cyber Security Breaches Survey published by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, over 4-in-10 Businesses (43%) and 2-in-10 Charities have been the victim of a Cyber Security breach in  the past 12 months. These figures rise to 72% among large businesses, and 73% among the largest Charities with incomes of £5 million or more.

Breaches were more often identified among the organisations that hold personal data, where staff use personal devices for work (BYOD) or that use cloud computing.

2. The number of Cyber Crime Incidents almost DOUBLED in 2017. 

According to a report by the Online Trust Alliance, the number of Cyber Crime incidents targeting businesses nearly doubled from 82,000 in 2016 to 159,700 in 2017. These incidents were driven by ransomware and new attack methods. The additional statics were also presented in the report:

• 93% of breaches could have been prevented
• Reported breach incidents increased by 18.2%
• 7 billion records were exposed in first 3 quarters of 2017
• The global financial impact of Ransomware has reached $5 Billion
• There was a 90% rise in business targeted ransomware

3. The FBI has a Cyber Criminal Most Wanted List online.  

You’ll find a list of the some of the Worlds most wanted Cyber Criminals on the official FBI website.  This list currently contains 41 Cyber Criminals that are responsible for consumer losses that range from 350,000 to over 100 Million Dollars. Ouch…

The website goes into detail about every Cyber Criminal, including the Cyber Crimes they are accused of. You can even download a PDF copy of their wanted poster!

4. MyDoom is the most expensive Computer Virus of all time.

First spotted in January 2004, the MyDoom Virus caused an estimated financial damage of 38.5 Billion Dollars!  BIG Ouch…

Believed to originate from Russia, MyDoom became the fastest-spreading email worm ever, a record that has yet to be surpassed. In order to maximise its impact, MyDoom was disguised as a spam email which contained an attachment. When a user opened the attachment, the worm would re-send itself to every address that it could find on the Computer.

The original version of MyDoom opened a backdoor which allowed the hacker to take remote control of the user’s Computer. It also conducted a DDoS attack (Direct Denial Of Service) against the SCO group’s website.

The author of the Virus was never discovered.

5. The cost of Cybercrime damage could rise to 6 Trillion dollars by 2021.

According to the official Cyber Crime report by Cyber Security Ventures, the cost of Cyber Crime damage could increase to 6 Trillion Dollars worldwide by 2021, that’s DOUBLE the reported cost of Cybercrime damage recorded in 2015.

These projections are based on historical Cybercrime figures, including year-one-year growth and a dramatic increase in hostile nation state sponsored and organized crime gang hacking activities.

Cyber Security Ventures also estimates there will be 3.5 million Cyber Security job openings worldwide by 2021.

6. The average time for businesses to identify a data breach is 191 days.

According to the 2017 Cost of Data breach study by the Ponemon Institute, organisations were able to reduce the number days to identify a data breach from an average of approximately 201 in 2016 to 191 days. The average number of days to contain a data breach has been reduced from 70 to 66 days.

The study attributes the improvements in identity and containment times to investments in Security technologies as security analytics, SIEM, enterprise wide encryption and threat intelligence sharing platforms.

7. Only 27% of UK Businesses have a Cyber Security Policy.

According to the Cyber Security Breaches Survey published by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, under 3-in-10 businesses (27%) and 2-in10 Charities (21%) have a formal Cyber Security policy or policies in place.

This is a damning statistic which indicates that many businesses still don’t consider Cyber Security to be a priority and/or they are unsure how to implement better Cyber Security and a Cyber Security policy.

8. Worldwide Cyber Security Spending will reach 96 BILLION Dollars by 2018.

That’s right, by the end of the year we will be spending an 11 FIGURE SUM on Cyber Security., which is an INCREASE OF 8% from the previous year! According to this article from Gartner, “a large portion of security spending is driven by Organisations reaction toward security breaches as more high profile cyberattacks and data breaches affect organizations worldwide.”

Gartner also predicts that by 2019, total enterprise spending on security outsourcing services will be 75 percent of the spending on security software and hardware products, up from 63 percent in 2016. Enterprise security budgets are also shifting towards detection and response, and this trend will drive security market growth during the next five years

9. 75% of data breaches are caused by external hackers.

According to the 2017 Verizon data Breach investigations report, external hackers predictably continue to be a bigger threat than internal ones.  51% of these external threats were from organised Cyber-crime groups and 18% of attacks involved state affiliate groups.

Internally, 25% of Security breaches were caused by malicious, careless and negligent users with permitted access to company systems and data.

10. Over 16 Million MOBILE Malware Infections were detected in Q3 2017.

According to their latest mobile threat report, Cyber Security specialists McAfee claims to have detected over 16 million mobile malware infestations in the third quarter of 2017 alone, nearly doubling the number that was detected the year earlier.

Could 2018 be the year of Mobile Malware? We hope not, but it’s clear that the threat of Cybercrime for mobile users is increasing, which is to be expected when you consider that the number of mobile phone users in the world is expected to surpass FIVE BILLION by 2019.

The report also noted – “In the current threat landscape, a full-fledged campaign exploiting ad click fraud or pay-per-download scam (a market valued around $40bn in 2018) or a prevalent banking trojan could potentially bring in revenue of $1–$2m. If mobile malware continues on its current trajectory, it could create revenues for malware authors touching in the billion-dollar range by 2020.”