Mumbai: A study conducted by leading global market analyst Juniper Research has indicated that rapid digitisation of consumers’ lives and enterprise records will increase cost of data breaches to approximately $2.5 trillion globally—almost four times the estimated cost of breaches in 2015.
The research titled “The Future of Cybercrime & Security: Financial and Corporate Threats & Mitigation” has pointed out that majority of these breaches come will surface from existing IT and network infrastructure.
The cost of data breaches can reach up to $2.5 trillion by 2020. (Source: Juniper Research)Over the past couple of years, cyber-crimes have escalated perpetually, and a vast number of hacking groups are now shifting their focus to mobile and IOT devices, which are becoming an indispensable requisite for all large-scale modern-day businesses.
The Author of the research James Moar said, “Currently, we aren't seeing much dangerous IoT malware because it's not profitable', noted report author James Moar.
"The kind of threats we will see on these devices will be either ransom ware, with consumers' devices locked down until they pay the hackers to use their devices, or as part of botnets, where processing power is harnessed as part of a more lucrative hack.With the absence of a direct payout from IoT hacks, there is little motive for criminals to develop the required tools”
Another aspect highlighted by the report is the increasing professionalism of cybercrime, with the mass availability of cyber crime products—malware creation softwares and hacking tools since 2014.
Cost of data breaches on the rise
The report suggested that data breaches are forecasted to ascend in the next four years, as companies and consumers ride along the wave of digitisation.
Also, the number of data breaches can go up to 16,000 per year by 2020, as per the report.
The number of data breaches can go up to 16,000 per year by 2020. (Source: Juniper Research)
“As more companies and consumers conduct business and have social interactions online, the threat of cyber crime also rises, and the increased use of mobile devices boosts the risk of identity and data theft. Often, the most expensive forms of cyber crime are data breaches, in which hackers gain access to business or personal records,” the research added.
The research also suggested that the average cost of a single data breach in 2020 would cost businesses more that $150 million, owing to more utilisation of connected devices.
A global occurrence
According to the research, US and Europe suffered the biggest financial hit from cyber-crime, but hackers are also making their presence felt in other regions of the world as well.
Over the last year, some huge organisations including banks, enterprises, and government agencies have fallen prey to large-scale cyber attacks, however, a research by Microsoft pointed out that a lot of cyber-attacks occurring daily go unnoticed.
The research said that 20 per cent of small and medium-scaled businesses (One in five) have to bear the brunt of cyber attacks on a regular basis. In such a scenario, businesses are required to install strong network infrastructures and regularly update them.
