20 Frightening Cyber Security Facts and Stats

The cybersecurity industry is growing rapidly and the demand for Data Protection Officers is higher than ever, with unemployment rates at 0%. After a year that saw the largest rise in cyber crime rates in history, due to the increase of people working from home, it’s more important than ever to pay due diligence and protect your businesses and customers from the extraordinary threat from cybercrime.

Some of the stats are truly eye-watering!

• 85% of people posting puppy photos are trying to scam you
• Human error accounts for 95% of all data breaches
• Every 39 seconds there is a cyber attack
• 43% of cyber attacks target small business
• 75% of cyber attacks start with an email
• The global average costs of a data breach is $3.9 million across SMEs
• Since COVID-19 and the increase in staff working from home, the FBI have reported an increase of 300% in reported cybercrimes
• The worldwide information security market is forecast to reach $170.4 billion in 2022.
• Most companies take nearly 6 months to detect a data breach, even major ones
• On average, only 5% of companies’ folders are properly protected.
• Data breaches exposed 36 billion records in the first half of 2020.
• 86% of breaches were financially motivated and 10% were motivated by espionage.
• 4 million files are stolen every day - that’s 44 every single second
• 21% of files aren’t protected
• Cyber crime is quickly becoming more profitable than the illegal drug trade
• Around 95% of cloud security failures are predicted to be the customer’s fault
• Word, Powerpoint and Excel (the Microsoft office formats) comprise the most prevalent group of malicious file extensions
• Email is the primary entry point of 94% of malware attacks
• Cyber crime is set to cost $6 trillion in 2021 - twice what it was in 2015
• The Netherlands has the lowest cyber crime rate, whilst Russia has the highest

At Databasix, we bring people and data together in order to change the way that data is collected, understood and used. We work with organisations to make their data work better for them; to make better use of existing systems to improve data quality and to identify appropriate technical solutions that meet data collection needs.

We provide training to ensure data protection is taken seriously by all members of staff and a GDPR Toolbox to give worried Data Protection Leads a set of practical tools to deal with daily data protection challenges.