As challenges to data security grow more sophisticated, data breaches are also becoming more expensive. A better under- standing of the emerging risks, stronger collaboration within organizations, and the use of remote capabilities combined with automation of routine tasks can help, according to industry research.
Cybersecurity incidents continue to grow in volume, sophistication, and cost
- Companies lose $158 per compromised record, and breaches in highly regulated industries are reaching $355 per record—a full $100 more than in 2013.
- Average cost of a data breach for companies surveyed has grown to$4 million, representing a 29% increase since 2013. 64% more security incidents were reported in 2015 than in 2014.
Source: IBM 2016 Cost of a Data Breach Study
Businesses don’t fully appreciate the challenges to their data security
- Businesses are facing threats to not just their primary data but also their backup and protection data.
- More than one-third (36%) of businesses had a data loss or unplanned systems disruption due to either an internalor external security breach.
Source: EMC Global Data Protection Index 2016
Risk continues from tried-and-true attack patterns such as phishing and unpatched vulnerabilities
- The top 10 known vulnerabilities of confirmed data breaches involve using weak, default, or stolen passwords accounted for 85% of successful exploits.
- 63% of confirmed data breaches involve use of weak, default, or stolen passwords
- 30% of phishing messages were opened, up from 23% in 2015.
- 13% of those clicked on the malicious attachment or link.
Source: Verizon’s 2016 Data Breach Investigations Report
Emerging threats come from highly organized cybercriminal enterprises
- Only 20% of decision makers in large multinational corporations feel confident that they are prepared to fight threats from cybercriminals.
- 94% of IT decision makers know that employees are being blackmailed and bribed for access to their organizations.
Source: Research from BT and KPMG, 2016
Organizations that believe they are now less vulnerable than they were a year ago attribute this to the use or expansion of 5 approaches:
- Detection and prevention systems
- Data encryption
- Improved patch management
- Log analysis
- Security training
Source: SolarWinds 2016 IT Security Survey, North America
Collaboration and automation are critical for security
Organizations believe their effectiveness would improve by 38%–100% if their threat management and incident response teams collaborated more closely.
To facilitate collaboration, many organizations want 2 capabilities:
- To conduct certain processes remotely no matter where they are physically
- To automate certain routine tasks
Source: “Collaboration: The New Secret Weapon Against Advanced Threats,” 2016 Report from Intel Security
An infographic of these data points appears in the Fall 2016 issue of Big Data Quarterly magazine.