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Why do you look for cybersecurity stats? 

Are you worried about data breaches or the overall impact?

Do you want to learn more about how crimes affect by type or to specific industries?

You don’t need to invest big time in your cybersecurity to fix your posture in today’s business world. You only need awareness, from the right, trustable sources.

That’s why in 2020, we compiled 35 cybersecurity stats that teach what you need to know.

 

Overall Impact Cybersecurity Stats

The first thing that comes to your mind when thinking about cybersecurity, it’s probably its impact. These are the three most important stats to know about overall cybersecurity.

“Hackers attack every 39 seconds, on average 2,244 times a day.” (University of Maryland)

 

“68% of business leaders feel their cybersecurity risks are increasing.” (Accenture)

 

“Only 5% of companies’ folders are properly protected, on average.” (Varonis)

 

“The top malicious email attachment types are .doc and .dot which make up 37%, the next highest is .exe at 19.5%.” (Symantec)

 

“By 2020, the estimated number of passwords used by humans and machines worldwide will grow to 300 billion.” (Cybersecurity Media)

 

Data Breaches Cybersecurity Stats

You don’t know how much you fear data breaches until you truly understand the data behind. 

The following stats suggest that they aren’t only growing in number, but also at scale and severity. 

 

Security breaches have increased by 67% since 2014.” (Accenture)

 

“The average lifecycle of a breach was 314 days (from the breach to containment).” (IBM)

 

“The average cost of a data breach is $3.92 million as of 2019.” (Security Intelligence)

 

“64% of Americans have never checked to see if they were affected by a data breach, and 56% don’t know what to do if there is an event of one.” (Varonis)

 

“71% of breaches were financially motivated and 25% were motivated by espionage.  52% of breaches featured hacking, 28% malware, and 33% included social engineering.” (Verizon)

 

Cybersecurity Stats Related To Compliance

Pain-free mismanagement doesn’t exist. There are more strict laws and tougher consequences for companies who bypass them, than ever before. 

In most cases, companies like yours aren’t even aware of the type of risks they’re vulnerable to. That’s why I invite you to talk with our team, to find out if there’s something to improve.

 

“53% of companies had over 1,000 sensitive files open to every employee.” (Varonis)

 

“88% of companies spent more than $1 million on preparing for the GDPR.” (CSO Online)

 

“Companies reportedly spent $9 billion on preparing for the GDPR.” (Forbes)

 

“1,000 news sources blocked EU readers to avoid the GDPR compliance rules.” (Nieman Lab)

 

“31% of consumers feel their overall experience with companies has improved since the GDPR was enacted.” (Marketing Week)

Cybersecurity Stats By (Type Crime)

As in the physical world, crimes also varies in different types. There are more common and other less-known types of cyberattacks that seem to be growing exponentially.

Do you want to know which of them am I talking about?

“61% of organizations have experienced an IoT security incident.” (CSO Online)

 

“34% of data breaches involved internal actors.” (Verizon

 

“98% of mobile malware targets Android devices.” (Kaspersky)

 

“1 in 36 mobile devices had high-risk apps installed. Third-party app stores host 99.9% of discovered mobile malware.” (Symantec)

 

“About 20% of malicious domains are very new and used around 1 week after they are registered.” (Cisco)

 

Industry-Specific Cybersecurity Stats

Not all industries are created equal… And as in cybersecurity, they aren’t hit the same way.

You’ll notice a pattern that indicates that those storing the most valuable information (like finance with social security numbers, and healthcare with medical records) are the biggest targets to hackers.

But don’t underestimate the importance of your industry, because it’s very likely that something on its core is attractive enough for a group of cybercriminals.

“16% of breaches involved the Public Sector, while 15% hit Healthcare organizations (with 113,491 sensitive files exposed on average), and 10% the financial industry (352,771 files /average).” (Varonis

 

“The financial services industry takes an average cost of cybercrime of $18.3 per company surveyed.”  (Accenture)

 

“The healthcare industry has the highest number of ransomware attacks. Which quadrupled in 2020.” (CSO Online)

 

“Lifestyle (15%), and Entertainment (7%) were the most frequently seen categories of malicious apps.” (Symantec

 

“Smaller organizations (1–250 employees) have a higher targeted malicious email-rate at 1 in 323.” (Symantec)

 

Spending and Costs Cybersecurity Stats

Have you set a cybersecurity budget for your company? Well, after seeing the following costs and spending stats, you’ll regret not doing so.

After all, you avoided investing that much into cybersecurity because “that X bad thing ain’t happening to you” but I can guarantee you, it can and probably will at some point.

Unless you make sure one cyberattack doesn’t cripple your business in a matter of days.

 

“Security services grew up to hold 50% of cybersecurity budgets, in 2020.” (Gartner)

 

“The average monetary cost of a malware attack on a company is $2.6 million and on time, 50 days long” (Accenture)

 

“$3.9 million is the average cost of a data breach.” (IBM)

 

“The cost of lost business averaged $1.42 million., and the average cost per record stolen is $150.” (IBM)

 

“Damage related to cybercrime is projected to hit $6 trillion annually by 2021.” (Cybersecurity Ventures)

 

Job-related Cybersecurity Stats

The demand for cybersecurity professionals continues to rise along with the rates of attacks and increases in cybersecurity budgets. 

The imbalance of the number of skilled cybersecurity workers along with the high demand to fill cybersecurity positions has caused a cybersecurity skills shortage. 

Interested in entering the field?

 

“The cybersecurity unemployment rate is 0% and is projected to remain there through 2021.” (CSO Online)

 

“82% of employers report a shortage of cybersecurity skills, but 61% of companies believe their applicants aren’t qualified.”  (ISSA)

 

“It’s predicted that by 2021, 100% of large companies globally will have a CISO position, as it’s projected to be around 3.5 million unfilled cybersecurity jobs.” (Cybersecurity Ventures)

 

“Information Security Analysts, Computer Network Architect, and Computer Programmer job positions in the US are expected to grow from 5% to 32% in 2018–28.” (Bureau of Labor Statistics)

 

“66% of cybersecurity professionals struggle to define their career paths and 60% aren’t satisfied with their current job.” (ISSA)

 

I can guarantee you that backed numbers like these help you to fully see the problem from a whole new perspective. 

If you have been thinking about improving your digital infrastructure, then the previous 35 cybersecurity stats projected for 2020 will push you a bit further.

By the way, only one thing is for sure: crimes are getting more diverse, damaging, and expensive. 

Are you going to act now… Or wait until the costs overpass your company’s capacity?