The Cybersecurity Ventures` scary cybercrime related predictions for 2021 are keeping security researchers on their toes.
According to a report, written by the security company, Cybersecurity Ventures, cybercrime will double within 5 years, jumping from $3 trillion this year to the whopping $6 trillion by 2021.
The report, which is named “Hackerpocalypse: A Cybercrime Revelation“, also reveals that 50% of the cyber-attacks, which occur today, are against small businesses.
It is worth mentioning that, when we talk about cybercrime`s consequences, we don’t only mean money thefts and loss of valuable information. We should also acknowledge the cost of addressing damage and destruction to systems and data, the reputational harm as well as the impact on productivity and any other damage caused by cybercriminals.
The rapidly increasing number of computerized and Internet-connected things in one of the main reasons cybercrime`s growth. While 10 year ago crooks` main targets were computers and network equipment, nowadays the black list has expanded significantly. Now, smart devices like phones and tablets as well as the huge number of Internet of Things (IoT) devices are also very appealing to cybercriminals.
The Hackerpocalypse: A Cybercrime Revelation report also emphasizes on the following important findings:
- By 2020, people will have 50 times more valuable data to protect, because of the above mentioned huge number of Internet-connected devices.
- The number of points at which an attacker could potentially attack and penetrate, called world’s cyber-attack surface, is expected to increase 10 times by 2021.
- Despite many governments` efforts and even the occasional arrests made, there is still no law enforcement to fight financial cybercrime, which is effective enough.
- There is a huge cybersecurity workforce shortage with over 1 million unfilled security jobs, and it is only getting worse. As a result, companies are still not able to defeat cybercrime by themselves. Instead, more and more of them are relying on external data breach and incident response firms and Managed Security Service Providers.
- As people are considered a weakness in the security chain, governments and businesses are investing in security awareness training for their employees. By 2021, people`s role in information security is expected to become a more important component of enterprise cybersecurity strategy.
- Crooks are constantly coming up with newer and more complicated attacking techniques to use against enterprise information system infrastructures and databases and steal valuable data.
- Some helpful tips on how to protect yourself from cybercrime, you can find in the article “13 Tips to Achieve Great Cybersecurity Without Spending a Fortune.”
