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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

 

References

Jann Chambers

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