Data Breaches Projected to Reach 146 Billion Records

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Where do you see your organization in five years? According to Juniper Research, without a solid security strategy, you may be one of the many experiencing a data breach.

According to Juniper Research’s latest report Cybercrime & the Internet of Threats 2018, the projections of the damages we’ll be seeing in the near future are pretty substantial:

  • 146 billion records breached over the next five years
  • A 22.5% growth in the number of records breached annually
  • Criminal data breaches projected to cost nearly $2.5 trillion over this period of time

And small businesses are likely the greatest target. With 99% of all companies being considered in the SMB, Juniper found that only 13% of overall spend in the cybersecurity market will be from SMBs. This means either SMBs are ignoring the problem or are focused on using consumer-grade solutions.

Regardless of your organization size, to get to 146 billion records, it’s going to involve businesses of every size. According to Juniper, the lion’s share will come from North America, representing just slightly above 87% of the total breach costs.

According to the latest Cost of a Data Breach report from Ponemon, the top five industries with the most frequent data breaches include Financial Services, Services, Industrial, Technology, and Retail.

I believe Juniper Research’s predictions should be seen as more of a warning call than an actuality. Breaches don’t happen on their own; attackers need entre into an organization to leverage user credentials and privileges to execute malicious actions.

To avoid adding to the 146 billion, smart organizations leverage a multi-layer security strategy that includes protecting users through Security Awareness Training. By educating users on the risk potential today, users themselves can become part of the preventative security you have in place. When users scrutinize emails looking for phishing scams, malware, etc., organizations are less likely to be the victim of ransomware, cryptomining, data breaches, and espionage.

Cyber-attacks are rapidly getting more sophisticated. GDR Group will help train your employees to better manage the urgent IT security problems of social engineering, spear-phishing and ransomware attacks. Take the first step now and email [email protected] to request a quote for Security Awareness Training and Phishing Testing for your organization.