Cybersecurity
Now is the Time to Review Your Cyberdefenses
Anthony Munns, FBCS, CITP, CIRM, CISA
The cybersecurity workforce is projected to be short
1.8 million employees in 2022, according to CIO.com.
The shortage of cybersecurity experts coupled with
the increasing frequency and severity of cyberattacks
should prompt public and private sector organizations
to evaluate the cyberdefense they have in their own
arsenal. Every industry is vulnerable to a cyberattack, but
certain industries face higher data breach costs. Heavily
regulated industries, including health care, education
and financial organizations, tend to incur a loss
substantially higher than the average $158 per capita
data breach cost. In health care instances, the cost is
more than twice the average.
Heavily Regulated Industries, Take Note Negligent Employees and Contractors Cause a
Quarter of Data Breaches
Each record containing sensitive and confidential
information that is lost or stolen in a data breach
costs an organization $158 on average, according to
the Ponemon Institute’s 2016 Cost of Data Breach
Study. For some businesses, a cyber breach can be
insurmountable – nearly 60 percent of small companies
go out of business following a hack, according to the
House Committee on Small Business.
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While most data breaches are caused by malicious or
criminal attacks, 25 percent are caused by negligent
employees or contractors, or “human error.” People are
becoming an easier target for cybercriminals to exploit
rather than defeating modern security software.
Through tactics such as email phishing, attackers