Security continues to be top of mind for businesses. It seems as if there are always breaking headlines that make the news about companies, and even entire cities, that have fallen victim to cyber attacks. Regardless of size or industry type, there are always bad actors trying to gain access in order to make a profit. In this blog post, we will review some of the top cybersecurity statistics that you should know and how to secure your data.
8 Cybersecurity Statistics according to Barracuda’s 2019 email security report :
- 74 percent of respondents say email attacks are having a major impact on their businesses. The most common effects cited were loss of employee productivity, downtime and business disruption, and damage to the reputation of the IT team.
- 78 percent of organizations say the cost of email breaches is increasing.
- Spear phishing is becoming more widespread: 43 percent of organizations have been the victim of a spear-phishing attack in the past 12 months.
- More than three-quarters of organizations say their employees aren’t good at spotting suspicious emails.
- 66 percent claimed that cyber-attacks have had a direct monetary cost on their organization in the past year. Nearly a quarter of respondents advised that attacks have cost their organization $100,000 or more.
- 92 percent of Office 365 users have security concerns.
- 79 percent of IT professionals said they are worried about attacks and breaches stemming from inside the organization.
- 94 percent of organizations say employees are reporting suspicious emails to IT on a daily basis, but 58 percent say most emails reported to IT aren’t fraudulent.
Taking preventative action against cyber threats
1. Implementing Multi-Factor Authentication.
The idea behind multi-factor authentication (MFA) is to provide 2 or more authentication methods in order to gain access. Having a complex password is very important, as a password provides the key to data. MFA provides another layer of security. Cisco indicates that MFA validates a person’s identity in one of three ways: something you know, something you have, or something you are.
A very common phishing attack mimics an Office 365 password reset. If the user enters their credentials, they unknowingly are providing this sensitive information to the hacker. However, if MFA is enabled the user should simply deny access when they see that someone that is trying to gain rogue access to their account.
2. Advanced Email Security.
Email is the most prominent way to become a victim of a cyber threat. Having an layered and advanced email security solution in place is very highly recommended today because of this. Multi-layer email security solutions can include features such as data loss prevention, link protection, encryption, and advanced threat protection. These are all great additions to protect your business email tenant.
3. Employee Training.
Regardless of the security measures that are in place for your network, it really comes down to user education to prevent security threats. Having top-notch firewalls, anti-virus, web and content filtering are all great lines of defense when it comes to limiting the chances of ransomware or other malware. However, the most effective strategy in combating these attacks is also typically one of the most poorly implemented. This is cyber security awareness training. Transform your employees into a layer of defense with Centrality’s Cyber Security Awareness Training.
