It is estimated that cybercrime will cost the world a mind-boggling $10.5 trillion a year by 2025. If that prediction comes true, cybercrime will become the world’s third-largest economy after the United States and China.

How does the risk of a cyber attack compare to that of a natural disaster?

Faced with natural disasters, people who live along coastlines know they may experience hurricanes in certain months of the year. People who live in the Midwest are aware that they might see a tornado or two. Snow shovels are on standby for northeast residents during the winter.

What do the inhabitants of these areas have in common? They were prepared for it in advance. Prevention is a more practical solution than cure.

According to the survey, nearly 300 natural disasters targeting the US between 1980 and 2020 cost a total of $1,875 trillion — significantly less than this year’s estimated global cybercrime losses of $6 trillion.

We are prepared for natural disasters. Why aren’t we more prepared for cyberattacks?

Distinguish fact from fiction

One reason for the lack of preparation is that there is a lot of incorrect or outdated information. This can give the impression that the business is safer than it really is. But there is still a big gap between perception and reality.

Myth 1: The security products I use are completely resistant to today’s threats, so I won’t be affected at all.

Reality: Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.

Many endpoint protection providers claim to be an all-encompassing solution. But no single solution can do it all. Hackers are getting smarter, evading new prevention tools every day. It is only a matter of time before they transcend the “latest and greatest” tools that exist today.

Myth 2: My business is too small to be targeted by cybercriminals.

Reality: Cybercriminals tend to choose networks that are easy to break into.

They will only see that this small business may lack the resources and money to invest in cyber security defense, so small business is the perfect target for them. They can make money successfully without expending a lot of effort.

The gap between small and medium-sized companies and large companies that have been hit by cyber attacks is narrowing. In 2020, small and medium-sized companies suffered less than half the number of hacking attacks as large companies. In 2021, the difference was far less pronounced: small and medium-sized companies suffered nearly 86 per cent of the violations of large companies.

No business is immune to cyber attacks, no matter whether it is a well-known organisation or just opened yesterday.

Myth # 3: Handling attacks is cheaper than adding lots of layers and tools to my stack.

Reality: The cost of an invasion is far higher than many of us realize.

First of all, the cost of cyber attacks is relatively high. These costs range from thousands of dollars to millions of dollars. According to IBM Security, the average cost of a data breach in 2021 was $4.24 million, an increase of nearly 10 percent from 2020.

Why so high? There are mainly the following types of costs:

  1. Check and upgrade. This includes paying staff to perform a variety of duties, such as investigating violations, assessing damage, informing stakeholders and implementing incident response plans.

  2. Business loss. Having to shut down normal operations until the event is mitigated can be costly. In addition, businesses may lose customers and potential customers because of reputational damage.

  3. Notify third parties. Companies must tell customers when there is a breach that could expose their personal information, whether they send emails and letters or make phone calls. This category also includes the cost of hiring outside experts to help mitigate the situation.

  4. Response after violation. This cost category focuses on helping victims of a data breach and includes ensuring that employees can provide full support to customers, provide credit monitoring or other similar services, product discounts and other items to compensate customers after a data breach.

Then there are the intangible costs. For example, loss of credibility and reputation. Rebuilding the trust of customers and potential customers can take time and money.

Compared with damage control after an event occurs, moving security left into the software development cycle and using static code detection tools can effectively avoid some runtime defects and code defects, reduce software security vulnerabilities and improve the security of software itself. Combined with various software protection tools and antivirus tools, to ensure a full range of network security. But it’s important to note that no single tool is foolproof, and that comprehensive protection can help. Taking these steps now can save businesses thousands or even millions of dollars in the long run.

Reinforce your defense with a good offense

As it turns out, no security solution can completely block cyber attacks. Strengthening the safety of software itself is the necessary means to enhance the means of protection; And various other existing security tools can make it harder for hackers to break in. As the costs related to network security incidents continue to rise, software before going online, source code security vulnerabilities detection and repair, strengthen enterprise defense to do precautionary.

Reference link:

www.huntress.com/blog/breaki…