Although the overall cyber costs have increased, researches have shown a sharp rise in cybersecurity spending to combat the issue.
A recent study by Hiscox has revealed that there has been almost a six-fold increase in cyber security losses among businesses – increasing from a median of $10,000 per firm to a whopping $57,000.
The international study, researched about 5,569 companies across eight nations, indicating a $1.2 billion rise in cyber losses mounting up to almost $1.8 billion. The most heavily-targeted sectors were financial services, technology, and manufacturing, media, and telecoms (TMT).
However, there were quite a few signs that firms respond to threats with more rigorous
security measures with higher spending, with an increase of about 39%. To add up to this,
although losses increased, the proportion of companies targeted fell from 61% to 39%.
A representative sample of public and private sector organizations in the UK, Belgium, US,
France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, and Ireland was surveyed, with each firm being
mainly assessed on its cyber security strategy and execution to be ranked accordingly.
The results show a marked improvement in cyber security readiness, with the numbers
achieving ‘expert’ status almost doubling – from 10% to 18%.
Despite such an increase in security, around one out of six paid a ransom following a malware attack. The most significant losses reported by any single company facing ransomware – and which could include other cyber events as well – topped $50 million.
Hiscox CEO Gareth Wharton confirmed that while the number of enterprises reporting a cyber breach is down this year, the cost incurred due to criminal activity in this area appears to be markedly higher.
The number of enterprises that have paid a ransom post a malware infection is alarming. There is, however, one extremely positive message from this year’s report – a steep-change in cyber preparedness, coupled with enhanced levels of cyber activity and spending.
The report is a reminder of the fact that firms are much more likely to have a cyber incident than either theft or fire – for which most automatically insure. So, preparing for it is of the utmost importance.
To combat the evolving threats, the average spends on cybersecurity has risen from a mere $1.47 million to $2.05 million (39%). Almost twice as many firms are actively responding to cyber events by taking extra caution about combating hackers.
Data also reveals an almost 25% increase in employee training investments following an attack compared with 11% last year. Many more companies are prioritizing the key initiatives in the year ahead, and nearly 72% of respondents plan to intensify their cybersecurity budgets by about 5% or more, up from 67% last year.
The study clearly shows the increased interest for companies to shift towards enhanced
cybersecurity within their operations, indicated by recent calls for fair representation for
women in cybersecurity.
Even Government organizations like the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) are focusing on conducting Cyber Aware campaigns designed to inform users on how to protect themselves from cybersecurity threats and offering guidance to help people protect their accounts, devices, and passwords from increasing cyber-attacks. Cybersecurity is getting even more critical with each passing day, in the current COVID-19.
