Over the past several months, we all, in one way or other, embraced the digital life which is now an integral part of our lives. Covid pandemic outbreak shifted the world order from physical model to virtual mode establishing new normal, which would stay forever.
Global trends fast-tracked digitalization by at least 10 years. Unsurprisingly, cybercriminals and hackers became super active as new threats and vulnerabilities are introduced into the system. People are no longer operating behind the corporate protections and home networks are extremely weak and open for exploitation.
Cyber Threats are real!
The cyber threat landscape is constantly evolving, there are numerous new created every day and millions created every year. Although the threats follow basic procedures and protocols, they are becoming more potent and frequent.
Online threats are varied and they do not discriminate organizations from individuals when looking for a target.
Cyber-attacks can cause massive blackouts, failure of utility services, theft of valuable information, sensitive data like medical records, credit card information, data important for country national security, etc. It is not an exaggeration to say that cyber threats may affect the functioning of life, as we know it.
Most common types of Cyber-Attacks that gained prominence include targeted Phishing, Ransomware, Denial of service, Social Stigma, Trojans, Malware on Mobile devices.
•Cybercrime costs the global economy about 1 trillion. It is more than 1% of the global GDP.
•The average cost of a data breach in 2020 was a whopping $3.86 million.
•A data breach compromising 1-10 million records cost $50 million on average, whereas one compromising 50 million records can cost as much as $392 million.
The year 2021 so far has revealed a change in the threat landscape and priorities. Attack on Colonial Pipeline in the United States is a rude revelation of change in cyber-criminal is priorities from individual, corporate-based attacks to disrupting the country’s mainstream utility services. The role of state-based cyber attacks is revealed and hence the situation becomes more hostile.
Many big names of industry have suffered attacks of some kind resulting in some kind of loss for them.