Cybersecurity statistics are extremely interesting to look into, especially given the huge amount of cyber attacks that have taken the digital world by storm. Cybersecurity has become a very common theme both in the business world, as well as in day-to-day life.
$150 is the average loss per record after a company or a database has been subjected to cyber attacks.
This is largely due to the fact that more people than ever have Internet access, which automatically turns them into potential victims of cyber crime.
95% of all cybersecurity breaches and attacks are due to human error.
Hackers are always trying to stay one step ahead of the game in their eternal battle with cyber security teams, and this battle leads to new forms of cyber attacks and better and more improved cyber security protocols.
Approximately 43% of the total costs after a cyber security attack comes from the loss of information suffered by the targeted company.
Let’s go over some of the most fascinating facts about cybersecurity to get a better picture of this constantly expanding industry.
General Cyber Security Statistics
We all know how important cyber security is, but let’s go over a cyber security report to see just how exciting this industry can be.
By 2025, over $1 trillion will be spent by companies on cyber security.
This just proves to show you just how much companies value cyber security, given the huge amounts of money they invest in it.
95% of the total breached records during a year came from the following 3 industries: Government, Retail, and Technology.
Most data breaches go for state institutions, given that in many countries they are still incredibly out of date when it comes to their cyber security systems.
$170.4 billion is the estimated number that will be reached by the global information security market in 2022.
The numbers are impressive, considering that cyber security wasn’t even a word almost 3 decades ago.
88% of companies and organizations from all over the globe have been victims of spear-phishing attempts.
While these cyber attacks stats apply for 2019, the numbers have pretty much maintained themselves at a similarly high level.
21% of all the files that have some form of a digital connection are not protected at all.
That means the 1 out of 5 files you can find online or through an internet connection have no form of cyber protection.
41% of all enterprises have databases with more than 1,000 sensitive records.
These records may include credit card numbers, health records, and other personal information that is not protected according to 2021 cyber security standards.
Over 350% is the annual growth of ransomware attacks.
That means that ransomware attacks are more than tripling with each passing year.
90% of all the remote code execution cyber attacks have crypto mining as the main reason.
Hackers will access a remote system in their attempt to start mining Bitcoin (and other cryptocurrencies) using your hardware.
Approximately 24,000 malicious mobile apps are blocked on a daily basis.
This number is incredibly high and it will continue to grow along with the increase in smartphone and tablet sales.
More than 70,000 Department of Defense contractors in the United States have to be in compliance with CMMC regulations (Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification).
All contractors received this notice to be up to date by 2021.
Almost 60 million Americans have been victims of cyber identity theft.
That means that more than half of all US citizens have had their identity stolen by cyber criminals.
Top 10 Countries Affected By Cyber Security Attacks
As you can see, the United States is the most targeted country in the world by hackers and other types of cyber criminals.
- United States: 38%
- India: 17%
- Japan: 11%
- Taiwan: 7%
- Ukraine: 6%
- South Korea: 6%
- Brunei: 4%
- Russia: 4%
- Vietnam: 4%
- Pakistan: 3%
It comes as no surprise that the United States ranks on top, given the fact that it’s also the world’s number 1 economic power.
Cost Of Cyber Security in 2021
If 2021 has witnessed something, that’s the increase in costs when it comes to cybersecurity protection, employees and development. Everybody needs cybersecurity now more than ever, and the dollars are starting to pile up.
$150 is the average loss per record after a company or a database has been subjected to cyber attacks.
That’s the equivalent of almost 50 tall Caffe Latte from Starbucks.
$6.3 million is the average cost of data breaches in enterprises with more than 50,000 compromised records.
And for companies with fewer records compromised, the cost of cyber security per compromised record is even higher.
Approximately $1.6 million is the total cost of lost business for organizations dealing with cyber security issues.
That amounts to a total of 36% of the total average cost of lost business.
$24,439 is the average cost pentru compromised email.
It’s an extremely impressive number given the huge volume of emails sent on a daily basis.
$6.2 billion each year is the total cost paid by the United States for healthcare industry data breaches.
These numbers are astronomical, no matter how you choose to look at them.
A company’s share price falls by an average of 7.27% after its records have been breached.
This price fall usually occurs after almost 2 weeks since the attack took place. The company also underperforms the NASDAQ by – 4.18%.
The Wannacry virus infected more than 100,000 groups in over 150 countries, reaching a total cost of $4 billion.
That’s an extremely impressive number for a virus dating back to 2017, which managed to infect approximately 400,000 machines worldwide.
$2.9 million each 1 minute is the estimated total cost cyber crimes have on organizations.
At the same time, big corporations lose approximately $25 per minute due to data breaches.
By 2027, the entire cyber security market will amount to a total of $403 billion.
The CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate_ is estimated at 12.5%.
Security Spending and Cost Stats
Cyber attacks today are beginning to cost companies more and more dollars by the day. Especially when it comes to enterprises caught off guard in the event of an attack.
Approximately 43% of the total costs after a cyber security attack come from the loss of information suffered by the targeted company.
That means that almost half of the total financial loss from a company is made out of the missing or stolen information from its database.
$1.56 million is the total cost of post-data breach response in the United States.
The United States spends more than any other country in the world in this area.
$1.43 million is the total cost of post-data breach response in the Middle East.
They come in second place after the United States when it comes to money spent in this field.
With an average cost of $6.45 million, healthcare organizations and institutions have the highest average cost out of any other industry.
The United States invests the most in cyber security prevention, especially in the healthcare industry.
Cyber Security Risks Statistics
If you’re operating a company that has any type of digital presence whatsoever, you should know that you are at risk of cyber attacks.
It takes an average time of 207 days in order to identify a security breach.
This means that it takes a company more than half a year to spot a security infiltration in its system.
280 is the duration of a security breach since its identification, until its containment.
Analyzing this information about cyber security is definitely helpful, especially for the companies that are the most at risk of being victims of cyber security.
69% of healthcare industry representatives believe that they are at a greater risk of cyber crime as opposed to other industries.
And they could be right, given the amount of sensitive data which can be stolen from healthcare databases.
Almost 50% of banks and financial institutions are at risk of being attacked by cyber criminals.
The exact percentage is 47% and you can easily understand why almost half of the world’s banks and financial institutions would be a target for hackers.
69% of enterprises don’t believe in the power their antivirus has in protecting them against cyber attacks.
However, having one reliable (if not more) antivirus to secure your company’s data is a primordial need for anyone operating in today’s digital world.
50% of the risks companies are subjected to are caused by working with multiple cyber security departments.
More is not always better. Sometimes, less is more and this is the case for cyber security teams. It’s better to have one cyber security department that handles all the ins and outs, rather than more teams passing sensitive data from one another via digital communication channels.
Approximately 65% of companies have over 500 users who have never been asked to change their passwords or security questions.
That means that you’re only reassuring that 35% of the accounts are updated with the latest security protocols.
GDPR Cybersecurity Statistics
One of the most important current cyber security issues is everything GDPR-related. GDPR stands for General Data Protection Regulation and was officially passed by the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union, and the European Commission on the 14th of April 2016.
More than 36 billion records were subjected to data breaches in the first half of 2020.
Without a proper cyber security system and specialized personnel, cyber attacks will continue to post threats to any business or personal records which can be found online.
58% of data breaches involved personal data in 2020.
This means that more than half of the total breaches had the goal of stealing personal data and information.
29.6% of all enterprises will be victims of cyber attacks within the next 2 years.
Out of these cyber crimes, data breaches (including GDPR protected data) will represent a huge part of the total damage.
In preparing for adopting the new GDPR standards, 88% of companies have spent over $1 million.
This just proves to show you the importance companies place on GDPR rules, especially when you consider the huge GDPR applicable fines.
Cyber Crime Statistics Worldwide
Data security statistics reveal shocking numbers and fascinating facts when it comes to the state of cyber crime in today’s digital world.
86% of all breaches were financially motivated.
While only 10% were caused by espionage (be it commercial, or national espionage).
45% of all breaches featured hacking or hacking-related methods.
The same analysis on cyber security incidents shows that 17% involved malware and 22% involved phishing cases.
Only 25% of all companies have an in-house cyber security department.
That means that 3 out of 4 organizations choose to work with outside cyber security specialists.
By 2023, hackers and various forms of other cyber criminals will steal a total projected amount of 33 billion records.
It’s impressive if you think about the fact that the world’s total population is 4 times smaller than the number of records that will be stolen in just 2 years.
Cyber crime in the United States is increasing by 27% each year.
With a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 27%, cyber crime has one of the most impressive growths out of any other crime statistics recorded.
Approximately 31% of all enterprises have been subjected to some form of cyber attack on operational technology infrastructure.
1 out of every 3 companies has been attacked by cyber criminals.
Top 10 Latest And Most Impressive Cyber Security Attacks, By Year
- 2018 – Facebook’s code was successfully exploited by cyber criminals, compromising the accounts of over 50 million users
- 2018 – Quora had the information of almost 100 million of its users hacked after a major security breach in their database.
- 2018 – Under Armor had over 150 million of its accounts hacked through its “My Fitness Pal†mobile app.
- 2019 – Maryland Department of Labor was breached by hackers who managed to obtain the names and social security numbers of more than 78,000 citizens.
- 2019 – Capital One had over 106 million of its records stolen. These records contained both personal and financial information.
- 2020 – The Marriott Hotel Chain was subjected to a large security breach that had an impact on the data of more than 5.2 million hotel guests who were part of the company’s loyalty program.
- 2020 – MGM Resorts had 142 million personal records of their hotel guests being leaked due to a cyber attack.
- 2020 – Zoom had approximately 500,000 passwords stolen and later put on sale on dark web forums.
- 2020 – Magellan Health was the victim of a huge ransomware attack and data breach covering over 365,000 patient records.
- 2020 – Twitter’s security breach was a very strategically-thought out scam created by hackers to steal $121,000 in Bitcoin through approximately 300 illegal transactions.
Small Business Cyber Security Statistic
Small businesses can be the preferred target for cybersecurity breaches, given that most of them don’t have an IT department (if any) experienced in dealing with cyber crime.
68% of all business leaders are of the opinion that cybersecurity risks are growing and they expect their organizations to be targeted.
The more small business owners realize the threats of cyber crime, the more difficult time hackers will have in breaching their systems and stealing their data or causing any other type of harm.
Only 5% of all the folders inside a company are properly protected.
That means that small businesses are leaving approximately 95% of their data as an easy target for cyber attacks.
$2.65 million is the average cost of cyber crime in small organizations.
In companies with a number of employees between 500 and 1000, the average cost per employee is $3,533.
Approximately 70% of all SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) are not prepared to fight against or protect themselves against cyber attacks.
That’s a whopping percentage just waiting to be targeted by cyber criminals worldwide.
3 out of 4 small business owners have stated that they don’t have sufficient specialized employees to tackle cyber security issues.
Judging by this stat, only 25% of companies are equipped to handle a cyber security threat coming their way.
An estimated 85% of small businesses have plans to increase their spending on cyber security services.
This will definitely lead to a drop in the number of cyber attacks targeting SMEs.
51% of small business owners will not be allocating new funds in their budgets for cyber security issues.
Hackers will still have plenty of available and easy targets to attack in the upcoming years.
Approximately 58% of all malware attack victims are reported to be small businesses.
That leads 42% of victims in the category of regular internet users.
Cybersecurity Facts
If you weren’t impressed by the outstanding stats you’re read so far, the following internet security facts will definitely make you look at the entire cybersecurity industry from a different perspective.
During a 15 year timespan, a total number of 11,762 recorded breaches took place.
The time period taken for this analysis is between the 1st of January, 2005 until the 31st of May, 2020.
300 billion passwords are currently in circulation.
These passwords are used by both humans as well as machines.
37% of malicious email attachments use the .doc and .dot extensions.
With 19.5%, .exe is the next most popular malicious email attachment you can open.
Approximately 50% of the global data breaches will occur in the United States by 2023.
That means that the United States is targeted not just by American hackers, but by international cyber criminals from all corners of the world.
64% of all US Citizens have stated that they’ve never checked to see if their online data was affected by cyber attacks.
Most regular citizens don’t palace such a huge emphasis on their online data.
358% is the increase of malware use in 2020.
At the same time, ransomware usage went up by 435% compared to a year ago.
A 653% increase in malicious activity was reported in July 2020, as opposed to the same month the previous year.
These astronomical numbers are definitely putting CTOs to work and to better adapt their IT departments to handle cyber security threats of all natures.
$176.5 was the total worth of the global cyber security market in 2020.
And the numbers will only continue to go up from there.
Conclusion
Cybersecurity is no laughing matter and any company that doesn’t already have a cyber security plan or system in place should get one as soon as possible. Judging by the constantly growing number of cyber attacks at a daily level, it’s pretty hard to run a stable website or business without strong cyber security protocols.
Looking at all the latest cybersecurity statistics we can easily see a shift in this industry, by the number of new job openings for this specialization.
Companies are placing a stronger focus on cyber security, in their attempt to fight off any hacking attacks and any security breaches that pop up every day. How do you see the future of cyber security in your company or industry?
FAQ
How many cyber attacks per day ?
The estimated number of daily cyber attacks is around 2200 attacks. This total number would amount to 1 cyber attack every 39 seconds.
How many people get hacked a year ?
It is estimated that approximately 6.85 million accounts are hacked on a daily basis, which means that over 2.85 billion accounts are being attacked and hacked in one year. Putting things even more into perspective, that amounts to 1 account being hacked every 158 seconds.
How frequent are cyber attacks ?
Cyber attacks occur once every 39 seconds, based on an analysis conducted by Security Magazine. There are approximately 2200 cyber attacks each day, which would break down into 1 attack every other 39 seconds.
