ExecutiveChronicles | Cyber Security Stats: 5 Powerful Lessons Revealed By the Latest Cyber Security Statistics | If you have a dedicated IT team and a disaster recovery plan in place, it’s tempting to think that you don’t really need to bother looking into cyber security any further. While it’s true that the best disaster recovery solutions will help you recover rapidly from a data breach, it’s still infinitely better to avoid becoming a victim in the first place. To that end, let’s take a look at five ways sapphire.net can inform your cybersecurity strategy going forward.
1. The rise of “cyber fatigue”
Though you may not have ever heard of this term, you can probably already relate to it. Cisco reported that around 42% of companies confirmed that staff and leadership are feeling the effects of cyber fatigue.
Every day it seems you need to be changing a password, remembering some new security step, or fumbling with different devices to manage multi-factor authentication. It’s no wonder we’re all getting exhausted. However, as we’ll learn in the next point, this exhaustion can create a way in for bad actors. So, as a business owner, it’s crucial to find that perfect balance between high-level security and ease of use for authorized personnel.
2. The problem of human error
The World Economic Forum reported that 95% of cyber security breaches are attributable to human error. This is why the aforementioned social engineering attacks are the choice du jour for cybercriminals in 2022. This attack vector allows them to capitalize on a combination of human error and the law of increasing odds – by broadly distributing a range of phishing attacks, they’re bound to eventually hit someone who makes a mistake and lets them in.
The key for business owners is to ensure that mistake isn’t committed by anyone in your team or supply chain. For you and your team, that means engaging in cyber security training, not just as an onboarding procedure for new hires but as a regular company-wide practice.
3. Supply chain issues
No matter how well you and your team are trained, if one of your suppliers has a weakness, it can put you at risk. According to PurpleSec, third-party attacks shot up by 42% in the first quarter of 2021 alone. Among the IT and security personnel surveyed, 84% rated supply chain attacks as one of the most concerning cyber threats to prepare for over the coming years.
For business owners, this means supply chain transparency has never been more important. You need to have an understanding of every link connected to your company, and crucially, you need to be having conversations and setting policies around cybersecurity.
4. The clues to look for in malicious emails
Symantec recently reported that the most common email attachment types to contain malware are doc, dot, and exe files. These three file types make up around 57% of all email-delivered malware.
Of course, that doesn’t mean you can open any old attachment that doesn’t have one of these suffixes. All it means is that you and your team should be extra cautious about opening such files.
5. Cybercrime is big business
Over the next three years, analysts predict that the cybercrime “industry” will hit a $10.5 trillion value. It’s not just the multi-million-dollar ransomware attacks contributing to this eye-watering figure. Small and medium-sized enterprises are just as susceptible to multi-thousand-dollar attacks. So, it’s crucial for businesses of all sizes to take action before they become a victim.
Keep these statistics and the lessons they carry in mind as you work with your IT department or MSP to develop a robust cybersecurity strategy.
