Blog

55 Astounding Cybersecurity Statistics in 2024

Unfortunately, cybersecurity issues are a common day-to-day occurrence for many individuals and businesses. There are regular and common attacks and lots of data shows companies are still unprotected against hackers, viruses and data breaches.

In order to win the fight against cybersecurity threats, it’s important for people to understand the threats and how to prevent them. Security best practices are essential for a successful business.

It’s estimated that the size of the cybersecurity market worldwide will reach £177.55 billion.

To give you a better idea and some insight into cybersecurity today, we’ve put together a list of cybersecurity statistics to keep you safe and get you through 2024…

General Cybersecurity Statistics

4.1 billion records were exposed due to data breaches in the first half of 2019
68% of business owners feel cybersecurity risks for them are increasing
On average, only 5% of companies folders are protected
71% of breaches were financially motivated
52% of breaches featured hacking
28% of data breaches involved malware
32–33% included phishing or social engineering
In 2020, the estimated number of passwords used by humans and machines worldwide was 300 billion
On average, hackers attack every 39 seconds
The average lifecycle of a data breach is 314 days
The average time to identify a breach in 2019 was 7 months

Whilst many people consider cybersecurity issues to be an inconvenience, individuals and businesses around the world, and even governments, experience extreme financial loss and hardship due to cybercrime. Data breaches often cost millions of ££s, which is incredibly hard-hitting for small and startup businesses who are just trying to get their foot in the door.

Financial Cybersecurity Statistics

In 2021, it cost us £4.76 trillion to combat cybercrime
The average cost of a data breach is £3.11 million as of 2019
So far, the Equifax breach has cost more than £3.18 billion
On businesses, the average cost of a ransomware attack is £105,515
In 2022, worldwide spending on cybersecurity was £106 billion
The Wannacry virus in 2017 cost 100,000 groups in at least 150 countries £3.17 billion
Gandcab 5 demands that victims pay £1,982 for the decryption key
88% of companies spent more than £790,000 to prepare for GDPR
Google was fined £45.2 billion by a French data protection agency called CNIL for GDPR violations
Companies claim to have spent more than £7.14 billion to prepare for GDPR
50% of companies with more than 10,000 employees spend £790,000 or more annually on security

Cybersecurity Country Statistics

The U.S. spends around £1.24 million on post-data breach responses
The Middle East spends around £1.13 million on post-data breach responses
Globally, the cost of lost business was greater for the U.S. at £3.28 million per company
56% of Americans aren’t aware of the steps to take if they were victim to a data breach

Cybersecurity Industry Statistics

Companies with 1-250 employees had the highest malicious email rate at 1 in 323
The WannaCry ransomware attack on the NHS cost of £79 million
The financial services industry is the hardest hit industry with costs of £14.5 million per company
The healthcare industry has the highest number of ransomware attacks
Ramnit, a trojan horse virus, accounted for 53% of attacks on the financial sector in 2017
The most frequently seen categories of malicious apps is lifestyle at 15% and entertainment at 7%
In 2019, the estimated losses for the healthcare industry were £19.8 billion
In 2018, the banking industry incurred the most cybercrime, costing them £14.5 million
15% of breaches involved Healthcare organisations
Small businesses accounted for 43% of breach victims
Financial and Manufacturing services have the most exposed sensitive file rate of 21%

Attack Type Cybercrime Statistics

94% of malware is delivered by email
In 2018, phishing levels declined
34% of data breaches involved internal actors
In 2018, 51% of companies experienced DDoS attacks
61% of companies experienced an IoT security attack
48% of malicious emails contain office file attachments
1 in 36 mobile devices have high-risk apps installed on them
1 in 13 web requests lead to malware
Around 60% of malicious domains are connected with spam campaigns
On average, 20% of malicious domains are registered and used within 1 week

Cybersecurity Compliance Statistics

69% of companies see compliance mandates driving spending
53% of companies essentially gave every employee access to over 1,000 sensitive files
By December 2018, only 50% of all companies thought they were GDPR compliant
15% of companies found 1,000,000+ files open to every employee
In its first year, GDPR fines racked up £50 million
61% of companies have over 500 accounts with passwords that will never expire
Since GDPR was enforced, 31% of consumers say their experience of companies has improved
In the first year of GDPR, there were 89,000 data breaches recorded