Trillions in Cybercrime Damage by 2021: Financial Sector Leading the Way

A 2016 report by Cybersecurity Ventures anticipates that by 2021, the worldwide cost of cybercrime will be more than $6 trillion annually. The largest slice of that $6 trillion pie is the financial sector. Unless the financial industry has a cyber security revelation, that number is set to soar by 2021. As we’ve come to learn, most CEO’s claim they had no idea that company data vulnerabilities existed until it was too late. It’s a well-known secret that many financial sector and other businesses fail to apply cyber security patches and other measures in adequate time to stop hacking vulnerabilities.

Statista, a US company studying…well, statistics, finds that 48% of adult Americans believe that financial institutions will probably suffer a cyberattack, while 18% feel that an attack is imminent. When financial data hacks occur, individuals correctly fear it involves their personal information. Having one’s sensitive banking, credit and other information put in the hands of data thieves is an incredibly damaging and expensive prospect.

There are some things all organizations can do to protect themselves, so they are not included in these statistics:

• Always apply security and critical patches and updates as soon as they are released. If it’s out of the normal patch cycle, don’t wait. Just get it applied immediately.

• Keep all security software installed on all systems and kept up-to-date. If it’s possible to enable the auto-update feature, do so.

• Educate and train staff, contractors, and everyone with access to the organization’s network on proper cybersecurity practices. This most certainly includes how to identify and avoid phishing attacks.

• Perform regular backups of all critical and important data. This will allow the systems to be restored from a current backup should a malware or ransomware attack happen.

Cyberattacks are lightning fast and without warning. Thieves attack and leave with very little to no way of finding their identity. In the 2017 hack of Equifax, a consumer credit reporting agency, 143 million customers data records were stolen. With the US leading the world in cyberattacks, companies in the financial and utility sectors are without doubt paying the biggest bill. According to “The Cost of Cybercrime” study of 2017 by Ponemon Institute, the US financial industry hacking cost was $18.28 million. Compare that to $5.07 million to the hospitality industry. It’s clear the financial industry is set for another record-breaking year of hacks in 2018 and beyond.