With recent high profile hacks of companies such as Uber, Equifax, and HBO, it’s safe to say that cybersecurity is already top of mind for many of the world’s biggest companies.
However, as billions of more devices get connected to the internet every year – including many that are not properly secured – this cybercrime threat is evolving quickly, and the stakes are rising as well. Experts estimate that cybercrime caused $450 billion of damage to the economy in 2016, and that number is expected to increase to $6 trillion by 2021.
The potential impact of a large-scale cyber attack is bigger than ever, and today cybersecurity is a number one concern for businesses, governments, and individuals.
Since 2013, over nine billion records have been lost or stolen globally, and nearly two billion of those were breached in the first half of 2017 alone.
With 80% of the value of Fortune 500 firms stemming from intellectual property (IP) and other intangibles, this means that the digitization of assets comes with massive risks. According to a joint report by Lloyd’s and Cyence, a single large-scale attack could cause up to $53 billion in damages, which is comparable to the size of a natural disaster.
The potential firepower behind today’s cyber threats are enough even to catch the attention of top defense officials. In a survey of 352 national security leaders, the greatest threat facing the United States is not terrorism (26.3%) – it’s actually cyberwarfare (45.1%).
Source: http://www.visualcapitalist.com/cybersecurity-fighting-450b-damage/
