Anthony Spadafora* says cyberattacks are becoming more effective and more expensive to overcome, with the average cost of an attack now exceeding $1.6 million.
According to new research from cybersecurity firm Radware, the average cost of a cyberattack has risen to $1.1 million.
However, with organisations that calculate (versus estimate) the cost of an attack, that number increases to $1.67 million.
The firm’s recently released 2018–2019 Global Application and Network Security Report also shed light on the top impact of cyberattacks, with businesses citing operational/productivity loss (54 per cent) followed by negative customer experience (43 per cent).
Almost half (45 per cent) of respondents reported that the goal of the attacks they suffered was service disruption while a third (35 per cent) said the goal was data theft.
Despite the increase in cyberattacks, a third of businesses do not have an emergency response plan in place despite 78 per cent of organisations experiencing service degradation or a complete outage during the past year, which was up by 10 per cent in 2018.
Impact of cyberattacks
Radware’s head of online and digital for the UK, Ireland and Scandinavia, Jeff Curley provided further insight on the findings of the report, saying: “This [past] year we’ve seen a real shift in the impact an attack has on a company financially and it’s especially interesting that more companies are taking the time to calculate the loss not just estimate it.”
“That’s not surprising given how volatile economies are at the moment.”
“Understanding the impact of downtime on productivity as well as sales and consumer trust is essential to justify spending money on protecting the business in the future, and staying competitive.”
The company also found that while the cost attack mitigation continues to rise, so does the number of organisations under attack, with most experiencing some type of attack within the course of a year and only 7 per cent of respondents claiming not to have experienced an attack at all.
Twenty-one per cent of those surveyed reported daily attacks, representing a significant rise from 13 per cent in the previous year.
Cyberattacks have also grown more effective, with 78 per cent of respondents hit by an attack experiencing service degradation or a complete outage compared with 68 per cent the year before.
* Anthony Spadafora writes about technology for ITProPortal and TechRadar.
This article first appeared at www.techradar.com.
