If you run your own business what gives you sleepless nights? What concerns or troubles you the most? Is it remaining competitive in a depressed market, or the struggle to access finance to fund expansion? Well, according to the latest HP-sponsored 2014 Ponemon Cost of Cyber-crime Study, the biggest worry for the majority of businesses isn’t competition or finance: it’s the threat of cyber-crime and cyber-attack. Why are businesses so worried by cyber-threat? Well, simply because they’ve seen how other businesses have been decimated by costly cyber-attacks. They’ve seen the associated costs of cyber-crime – compromised data, lost productivity, reputational damage and expensive clean-up and recovery costs. Is it any wonder they’re so worried?
Ponemon’s 2014 Study found that not only were targeted attacks on businesses continuing to grow dramatically, but also that organisations were finding that it took longer to recover from cyber-attacks. What’s more Ponemon also found that the costs associated with cyber-attacks were also increasing at an alarming rate, rising to an annualised average of $12.7 million – up by 10 per cent on 2013’s figures.
What will probably cause organisations the greatest concern is the amount of time involved in detecting and resolving cyber-attacks. The study found that the average time taken to detect a malicious cyber-crime is 170 days. The problems appear to be worse where attacks are carried out by malicious insiders, as the average time taken to detect these is estimated at around 259 days. Ponemon also found that the average time taken to clean up after an attack is discovered was 45 days. So potentially it can take around 7 months for organisations to realise they’ve been attacked and fully recover.
The Ponemon study found that distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, malicious code and malicious insider activity were the most common and costly threats for organisations. So it concluded that organisations should use this information to prioritise the allocation of security resources. Ponemon also stressed that if organisations want to minimise the risks of cyber-attacks it is imperative for them to put in place security systems which provide better protection, earlier detection and quicker recovery. Whilst the initial costs associated with proactive cyber-defence might frighten some businesses, the price of inaction is compromised data and systems breaches, and these could costs organisations far more in the longer term.
If you are concerned about the escalating security challenges and risk management issues facing your business today and would like to take precautions, then why not speak to Krypsys? Krypsys’ services are focused on helping your business assess its security posture against current and evolving security threats and educating you on the risks to which you are exposed. We have a wealth of experience in security projects in both the public and private sectors and have worked with organisations to protect high value information assets such as trading platforms, e-commerce systems, data-centres and cloud services. We also work with leading IT security vendors and specialist consultancies to close the gaps in your own IT security strategy and to assist in streamlining and prioritising your risk management spending.
Whether you’re looking for help with penetration testing and security reviews, or are looking for advice on security compliance and web security solutions, Krypsys can help you. For more information on web security solutions, please contact Krypsys on 01273 044072 or [email protected].