RecentCyberAttacksCash

Recent cyber attacks across the globe cost £1.2 trillion

A report published by RiskIQ, a leader in cyber threat intelligence, highlighted the cost to the global economy from recent cyber attacks to be in excess of £2.3 million per minute across 2018.

The annual report, which summarises figures on phishing, hacking, social engineering and other forms of cyber attack analyses the immense volume of malicious activity online gathered from RiskIQ’s proprietary global intelligence sector and other third-party research. It found that top companies are paying around £20 per minute as a result of cyber security breaches.

The Evil Minute Report stated that among the most common attacks were phishing, supply chain attacks on e-commerce and malvertising. Losses from phishing attacks alone were around £14,200 per minute.

Some key figures:

  • £17,800: The projected per-minute cost of ransomware attacks in 2019
  • £15,500: The per-minute cost of Cryptocurrency exchange hacks in 2018
  • 8,100: The number of identifier records compromised every minute



“As the scale of the internet continues to proliferate, so does the threat landscape.”



 Lou Manousos, CEO of RiskIQ
Woman covering face, eyes and ears, stopping awareness of recent cyber attacks
Image by Gerd Altmann

We need greater security awareness

“Without greater awareness and an increased effort to implement necessary security controls, there will be more attacks using an ever-expanding range of technologies and strategies,” Manousos said. “With the recent explosion of web and browser-based threats, organizations should look to what can happen in a matter of minutes and evaluate their current security strategy. Businesses must realize that they are vulnerable beyond the firewall, all the way across the open internet.”

Further figures on the infographic stated that e-commerce supply chain attacks, like the Magecart hacks, have increased by 20% in the last year, with motives of cyber criminals ranging from simple monetary gain to corporate espionage and political influence.

Phishing is getting bigger

Phishing is once again gaining popularity among cyber criminals, with recent cyber attacks focusing on compromising real email accounts, rather than just forging mail. Scammers are still targeting higher education predominantly due to the lack of enterprise-grade security employed by larger corporations.

With companies around the world facing ever larger threats from cyber criminals, security awareness training is shifting from a useful employee bonus to an essential tool for safeguarding your organisation.

Phishing Tackle offers a free 14-day trial click the link below to help raise security awareness within your organisation.

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