Over the past few years, cyber security has become a major concern for businesses around the world. With the total cost of cyber crime in 2023 forecasted to reach $8 Trillion, it's no wonder cyber security is top of mind for business leaders.
However, despite growing attention and budgets for cyber security in recent years, attacks have only become more common and more severe. While threat actors are becoming increasingly sophisticated and organised, this is just one reason cyber crime continues to rise.
A growth of cyber spending, a shortage of cyber security
If only it was simple enough as hiring more security experts and investing in more tools to solve cyber security issues and attacks happening.
Experienced cyber professionals are in short supply. The (ISC)2 estimates that there are 3.4 Million vacant cyber jobs globally. Close to 70% of cyber security employees "feel their organisation does not have enough cyber security staff to be effective and on top of mitigating the risk of an attack." So, even if an organisation has the budget to hire a small team of cyber security experts, they might not be able to find the talent to fill the role.
Data shows that organisations are investing more on cyber security each year. Gartner predicts global spending on security will grow by more than 11% in 2023, up to $188 Billion from $158 Billion in 2021. This is expected to continue, with global cyber security spending forecasted to increase by 11% each year through to 2026 to reach an estimated total of $267.3 billion.
Breaches are becoming more frequent and costly
Some data suggests the number of cyber attacks was 38% higher in 2022 than the previous year.
While not all attacks are targeted or sophisticated, the volume of attacks raises the odds that one attack will go undetected. It only takes one successful attack for a business to face serious costs and reputational damage.
It's common that organisations react to cyber incidents only after the attack is at an advanced stage, with very few clues on how the breach occurred and what the threat actors might be after. This leaves security teams trying to catch up, which slows down the response and recovery processes.
As the time it takes to return to business-as-usual increases, so does the cost of the attack. According to the 2022 IBM Cost of a Data Breach report, it takes the average organisation a staggering 277 days to fully identify and contain a breach. This brings the average cost of a data breach up to $4.35 Million. As you can imagine, this cost is high enough to pose a risk to many SMBs who may have to close the business because of an attack. Even for larger enterprises, this amount of money is large enough to not take notice of.
If you are struggling to proactively manage and mitigate the risk of a cyber attack, reach out to one of our experts who can help you to put a robust plan in place to ensure your business is secured.
You can call 0330 088 2565, or email support@lms.group to arrange a call or meeting with our cyber security team.
- by Lizzie Clark
- on May 5, 2023