Did you know that 2 May is Password Day? It serves to remind us of how important it is to have strong passwords protecting our systems and data. There’s no doubt that cybercrime is on the increase. In the first month of this year alone almost 1.8 billion records were leaked and there are more than 4,000 ransomware attacks every day. By the end of the year it’s estimated that there will be a ransomware attack on a business every 14 seconds. The expectation is that the global cost of cybercrime will exceed $2 trillion in 2019, with ransomware accounting for $11.5 billion of that figure. It’s predicted the cost of damage will increase to $6 trillion by 2021.
These are shocking figures but, if you think they don’t apply to you or your business, you’re wrong. According to the latest cyber security statistics, even if you are not aware of it, the chances are that most businesses have already been impacted by some kind of cyber breach and all individuals definitely have been. Most businesses don’t find out that they’ve been hacked for over 6 months.
According to a report from Hiscox, 73% of small businesses are not ready to respond to a cyber attack even though they would be severely impacted if they were targeted. In another report by Small Business Trends, it’s suggested that almost half of all cyber attacks are aimed at small businesses.
Almost half of all data breaches are the result of malicious activity or cyber attacks, according to a study from IBM and the Ponemon Institute. Other causes include human error and system glitches, which account for about a quarter each. The average cost of a data breach globally is $3.6 million. Accenture have found that the most expensive element of a data breach is the loss of information at almost half of the total cost.
Email has been found to be the weak spot in business’s online security. 91% of cyber attacks are caused by phishing emails and 92% of malware is delivered via email.
Hopefully, by understanding the extent of the risk and your exposure to cyber attack, you will increase your vigilance and look for better ways to increase protection of your business and personal online security. More secure passwords is the obvious place to start. Here are our thoughts on how you might achieve that.
Use passphrases rather than passwords. Instead of using single words as passwords, switch to use phrases, such as “ample garage dog rains”. Such phrases have been proven to be more difficult to crack by hackers.
Adopt increased security methods, including two factor authentication, password encryption and secure WiFi connections. You should also back up your data regularly to minimise the impact of an attack on your information.
More data breaches are caused by weak or stolen passwords than anything else, so strengthening passwords across your business will be the single most important step you can take in protecting your personal and business security online.