It’s no coincidence that National Cyber Security Awareness Month and Halloween both fall in October. We’ve rounded up 31 cyber security stats to prove that the risks associated with cyber vulnerabilities are just as scary as any ghoul or goblin you’ll run into while trick-or-treating tonight.
- 58% of malware attack victims are categorized as small businesses. (Verizon 2018 DBIR)
- 92.4% of malware is delivered by email. (Verizon 2018 DBIR)
- One of the most common methods of email malware infection is through phishing attacks. (CSO)
- 77% of compromised attacks in 2017 were fileless. (Ponemon Institute)
- 69% of companies see compliance mandates driving spending. (2018 IDG Security Priorities Study)
- 78% of enterprises have a formal incident response plan in place, but only 53% of SMBs (2018 IDG US State of Cybercrime)
- Damage related to cybercrime is projected to hit $6 trillion annually by 2021. (Cybersecurity Ventures)
- 95% of organizations provide security awareness training to their employees at least once per year. (2018 IDG US State of Cybercrime)
- At 38%, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel make up the most prevalent group of malicious file extensions. (Cisco)
- Lifestyle apps account for 27% of malicious apps. Music and audio apps account for 20%. (Symantec)
- Malicious apps most often leak phone numbers (63%) and device locations (37%) (Symantec)
- Only 20 percent of Android devices are running the newest operating system version, making them more vulnerable. (Symantec)
- Variants of mobile malware increased by 54% in 2017. (Symantec)
- 60% of online fraud is accomplished through mobile platforms. Additionally, 80 percent of mobile fraud is accomplished through mobile apps instead of mobile web browsers. (RSA)
- By 2020, the estimated number of passwords used by humans and machines worldwide will grow to 300 billion. (Cybersecurity Media)
- 21% of all files are not protected at all. (Varonis Report, More about Varonis)
- The mean time to identify a breach is 197 days. Companies that contained a breach in less than 30 days saved over $1 million vs. those that took more than 30 days to resolve (Ponemon Institute)
- 41% of companies have over 1,000 unprotected sensitive files, including credit card numbers and health records. (Varonis Report, More about Varonis)
- Nearly 50% of the security risk that organizations face stems from having multiple security vendors and products. (Cisco)
- The average number of records lost to hacking in 2017 was 780,000 per day. (McAfee)
- Data breaches are the most costly in the United States and the Middle East and least costly in Brazil and India. (Ponemon Institute)
- Up to .80% of the world’s GDP is now being lost to cybercrime. (McAfee)
- One in ten people have experienced a cyber attack through their home network. (Hartford Steam Boiler)
- Last year, the FBI reportedly received approximately 11,000 reported cases of tech support fraud, costing a whopping $15 million in damages. (FBI)
- Global average total cost of a data breach is $3.86 million (Ponemon Institute)
- Cryptojacking attacks jumped by 8,500% in 2017 (Symantec)
- Symantec found a 600% increase in overall IoT attacks in 2017 (Symantec)
- 48% of all breaches in this year’s Ponemon Institute study were caused by malicious or criminal attacks. (Ponemon Institute)
- 27% of all breaches in this year’s Ponemon Institute study were due to negligent employees or contractors. This is why fortifying your human firewall is so important! (Ponemon Institute)
- 25% of all breaches in this year’s Ponemon Institute study involved system glitches, including both IT and business process failures (Ponemon Institute)
- An incident response (IR) team reduces the cost of a breach by as much as $14 per compromised record. (Ponemon Institute)
