Friday, June 5, 2020

Cybercrime is a Bigger Problem Than Most Realize

Many of the major players in the cybersecurity industry have been on a tear as the number of hacks and cyberattacks continues to grow exponentially.  An Aon report states that annual losses from cyberattacks are poised to reach $6 trillion worldwide by 2021.

The threat landscape and bad actor-nation state backdrop continues to accelerate, coupled by an aggressive move by enterprises and governments to the cloud which has multiplied the threat vectors facing CIOs [chief information officers].


This is just the tip of the iceberg as the cyber warfare battle reaches a new level of threats for governments and enterprises alike.

Some examples data theft and breaches:
  • The Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack 
  • Sept. 2019:  DoorDash and an estimated 4.9 million consumers, delivery workers, and merchants who joined the platform on or before April 5, 2018.
  • Feb 2015:  The data for some 80 million healthcare enrollees of Anthem (NYSE: ANTM) was compromised by hackers; Anthem is the second-largest health insurer in the U.S.
  • Feb 2015:  Intuit's (NASDAQ: INTU) TurboTax was shut down because of a number of “suspicious” tax return filings. It appears that hackers were using stolen identity information to claim tax refunds.
  • Jan 2015: Cyberhackers may have stolen $1 billion from 100 banks across the globe over a two-year period, according to news reports.
  • 2014 was already a landmark year in terms of cyberhacking. Home Depot (NYSE: HD), Target (NYSE: TGT) and JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) were all targeted by cyber criminals last year.
  • The hacking of Sony (NYSE: SNE) also put cybersecurity on investors' maps.
Cybersecurity Spending Is Growing Rapidly

Cybersecurity spending is estimated to have hit $71 billion last year — an 8% increase over 2013’s numbers. And spending is expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate of 10% through 2020.

Given how much personal — particularly financial — information is being stored on servers these days, those numbers should come as no surprise.

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