Just How Dangerous Are Cyber Attacks to Businesses?

Every business should do their best to prevent cyber attacks, which are becoming more and more prevalent. Maybe your company already has a security system in place, so you believe it to be safe from this kind of harm. But perhaps you don’t realize how often cyber attacks take place, and how many end up greatly damaging businesses.

The following statistics might give you a better perspective of how harmful some common cyber threats can be, and how hard it is to stop them.

Phishing

Phishing is typically done via email, telephone or SMS, wherein a hacker, posing as a trustworthy person or entity, requests sensitive information, usually for some urgent reason. The average phish can knock out roughly 1.6 million USD out of your company coffers, and about 74 percent of organisations were the victims of phishing in 2017. The numbers will likely only get worse, since phishing has proven itself so effective.

Malware

Malware refers to a whole range of  malicious software whose tasks range from spying, corrupting data, shutting down computers so that the hacker can demand money from you at the pain of erasing all your data (known as ransomware or scareware) or lowering security measures to let other malware in (also known as a Trojan). In 2018, some 780 million different pieces of malware were found, and even as far back as 2015 it was calculated that virtually every company in the world was infected with malware. Malware spreads easily because it infects devices through the downloading of actually useful programs or other methods like site traffic redirection.

Man in the Middle

A man in the middle (MiM) attack occurs when a hacker intercepts an interaction between two or more parties, assuming the identity of each one while addressing the other(s). Under the guise of the other party, the cyber criminal is free to request any kind of data they can reliably obtain or insert any malware they deem fit. This kind of attack is hard to detect since seldom a trace is left by the culprit, and healthcare organisations make great targets for MiM.

As you can see, cyber crime is difficult to hide from, despite great effort invested in doing so. But a good way to reduce odds of a cyber threat endangering you or your business is to learn as much as you can about it. The infographic can help you a lot in that regard. It provides a plethora of statistics that shine a light on just how the world of cyber crime operates.