Kaspersky has released it’s Global Corporate IT Security Risks Survey (ITSRS), which has found that the cost of mitigating the security threats has risen by about 15%, mainly because the companies are now channelling more funds to PR agencies as well as to the third party experts, so as to regain their lost prestige instead of investing more in intrusion detection systems, new hires and other cybersecurity measures.
The fourteen-page report highlights various key points, which can be summarised as under:
- About 55% of all organisations are confident that their networks are secure, although about one-third of them have a lack of understanding of the threats to their organisation.
- Majority of the organisations (nine-tenth) are unconcerned about the malware infection, even though malware infection is the costliest cyber attack.
- Around 66% of the companies are hiring new specialist IT staff this year.
- The policies that are designed to regulate the third party infection are not sufficient. These policies treble the chances of receiving compensation and are not increasing enterprise protection.
- Having an Internal Security Operation Center in the organisation decreases the financial impact of the attack by half.
- About one-third of the companies which have hired a Data Protection Officer did not suffer financial losses.
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The three most common types of data breaches that impacted small and medium businesses were “incidents affecting IT infrastructure hosted by a third-party”, that cost a combined $162,000; DDoS and targeted attacks, both of which cost $138,000. On the other hand, enterprises were impacted more by malware infection of the company-owned device, that costs a combined $2.73 million, followed by ‘incidents affecting suppliers that we share data with’ at $2.57 million and physical loss of company-owned mobile devices at $1.69 million.
More often than not, security breaches don’t only cost the company but also its customers, which inadvertently comes back to haunt the company in terms of PR bills. According to the findings, while SMBs have over the years been investing more in hiring new talent to help them mitigate threats, enterprises are paying more to external professional such as PR agencies to help them get over the reputation impact following a breach.
“For enterprises, the most significant year-on-year increase in costs due to data breaches are in employing external professionals ($170k) and the hiring of new staff ($131k), which have increased by 35% and 24% respectively since 2018.”
As has been the trend for the past several years, security threats are on the rise with the internet’s increasing popularity. It is crucial not only for the enterprises as well as the SMBs but also for the end-users to deploy sufficient security measures. Investing in cybersecurity is of paramount importance since it has become a focal point in a social, financial as well as professional life.
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