Cybersecurity in 2021 & Beyond

Cybersecurity issues have become an increasing day-to-day struggle for businesses, worldwide.

Based on recent trends and the side effects of a global pandemic; recent cybersecurity statistics have revealed a huge increase in hacked and breached data from sources that are common in the workplace, such as mobile and Internet of things (IoT) devices. In addition to this, COVID-19 has increased the number of remote workforces, making it even easier for a cyber attack.

2021 Cybersecurity Trends

The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, forced companies to create remote workforces and operate off cloud-based platforms. The 5G rollout made connected devices more connected than ever. Suffice to say, the cybersecurity industry has never been more important.

Here are some industry trends and predictions for 2021 and beyond:

• Remote workers will continue to be a target for cybercriminals.

• As a side effect of remote workforces, cloud breaches will increase.

• The cybersecurity skills gap will remain an issue.

• As a result of 5G increasing the bandwidth of connected devices, IoT devices will become more vulnerable to cyber attacks.

11 Cybersecurity Facts and Statistics

1. 95% of cybersecurity breaches are caused by human error.

2. The worldwide information security market is forecast to reach $170.4 billion in 2022.

3. 88% of organizations worldwide experienced spear phishing attempts in 2019.

4. 68% of business leaders feel their cybersecurity risks are increasing.

5. On average, only 5% of companies’ folders are properly protected.

6. Data breaches exposed 36 billion records in the first half of 2020.

7. 86% of breaches were financially motivated and 10% were motivated by espionage.

8. 45% of breaches featured hacking, 17% involved malware and 22% involved phishing.

9. Between January 1, 2005, and May 31, 2020, there have been 11,762 recorded breaches.

10. The top malicious email attachment types are .doc and .dot which make up 37%, the next highest is .exe at 19.5%.

11. An estimated 300 billion passwords are used by humans and machines worldwide.

Cybersecurity in Australia

Whilst it’s important to look at global statistics and trends when it comes to cybersecurity, it would also be prudent to analyse what is happening in Australia and how we compare to global averages.

In Australia, the amount of monthly cyberattacks have been climbing all year, with mobile attacks in Australia currently higher than the global average, and the volume of ransomware attacks per month is on the rise.

Remote workers are a big target, with attacks against remote access systems such as RDP and VPN also increasing sharply.

Cybersecurity statistics in Australia

1. 79% of the malicious files in Australia were delivered via Email.

2. 82% of Cloud based networks suffered from Vulnerability Exploit attacks (IPS).

3. 67% of Cloud based networks suffered from Malware attacks (AV, AB, TE).

4. 42.9% of attacks email based attacks have come from people downloading .exe file attachments

5. 1 out of every 5 organizations suffers from malicious incidents.

6. 1 out of every 9 entrances to malicious websites is to a Phishing website.

7. 1 out of every 4 Phishing attacks are over SSL.

8. 1 out of every 9 organizations suffered from a Man in the Middle malicious activity while connecting to Wifi network.

9. 1 out of every 227 Email attachments is malicious

10. 1 out of every 624 links in Emails is malicious.

11. 1 out of every 555 malicious Emails is a Sextortion email.

Contact Our Cybersecurity Team Today!

It’s not all bad news though; while cyber criminals are becoming an increased threat, our technology is also improving every day to mitigate and combat a malicious incident.

Make sure you aren’t the next victim of a cyberattack; click here to book an appointment with one of our specialists, and secure your business.