With half of 2022 behind us, now is the perfect time to review cybersecurity strategies to prevent downtime and avoid exorbitant costs. 

“The current ongoing cybercrime surge was bound to happen, ” said Algirdas Sakys, information security manager at Nordlayer. “The shift to hybrid work made many businesses vulnerable, and, as we see in the numbers, countless companies were caught off guard. Even though 2021 was intense in many aspects, there were silver linings, too — an increasing number of businesses stopped taking cybersecurity for granted and started strengthening their cybersecurity posture.”

Taking a look at the past is a good place to start planning for the future. Below are 20 facts and figures related to cybersecurity.

  1. On average, data breaches cost companies $4.24 million.
     
  2. In total, 85% of data breaches involved a human element.
     
  3. It takes 287 days on average for a data breach to be identified and contained.
     
  4. Phishing remained the most common form of social engineering used by cybercriminals.
     
  5. The global cybersecurity workforce gap was estimated at 2.72 million specialists.
     
  6. Four out of five companies have increased their cybersecurity budgets in 2021, most by up to 10%.
      
  7. Data breaches cost the most for companies in the U.S. — $9.05 million on average.
     
  8. More than one-third of organizations globally have experienced a ransomware attack or a breach.
     
  9. An insurance company in the U.S. paid a (possibly) record-setting ransom of $40 million after being hacked.
     
  10. In the first half of 2021 alone, the average ransomware payment increased by 82% since 2020 to reach $570,000.
     
  11. Supply chain cyberattacks in the U.S. were up by 42%.
     
  12. Ransomware remediation costs increased more than twofold since 2020 from $760,000 to $1.85 million.
     
  13. Over 450,000 new malicious software programs were detected every day.
     
  14. Phishing was involved in 36% of successful data breaches.
     
  15. Every breached record of personally identifiable information costed companies $180.
     
  16. Organizations with a mature “zero trust” posture spent $1.76 million less for containing a data breach.  
     
  17. Cybersecurity is viewed as a business risk by 88% of boards members.
     
  18. Malware was the attack method in 62% of the supply chain attacks.  
     
  19. Approximately $5.2 billion in outgoing bitcoin transactions could be tied to ransomware payments, according to the U.S. Treasury.  
     
  20. A ransomware attack happened every 11 seconds.