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Insider threats cost organisations $15.4 million annually — Proofpoint
Frequency increased by almost half over the past two years, according to the study.
Research released today by Proofpoint has revealed that organisations impacted by insider threats spent an average of $15.4 million annually, up 34% from 2020
According to the 2022 Cost of Insider Threats Global Report from enterprise security provider Proofpoint, alongside Ponemon Institute, it took organisations an average of 85 days to contain each incident.
Over the last two years, frequency of insider threats has increased by 44%, according to Proofpoint, with three identified categories consisting of:
- careless or negligent employees/contractors (56% of incidents);
- criminal or malicious insiders (26%);
- cyber criminal credential theft (18%).
67% of surveyed companies experienced between 21 and more than 40 incidents per year, up from 60% in 2020.
Incidents caused by malicious or criminal insiders cost organisations an average of $648,062, while negligent insiders cost companies $484,931 per incident.
Negligence, according to the study, could include not ensuring devices are secured, not following the company’s security policy, or forgetting to patch and upgrade, among other factors.
Meanwhile, criminal insiders use data access, which has increased for the purpose of enhanced productivity, for harmful, unethical, or illegal activities.
Credential theft incidents have almost doubled since the last study, and prove the costliest to remediate with an average of $804,997 per incident.
Addressing insider threats: how board members can maintain cyber security
“Months of sustained remote and hybrid working leading up to “The Great Resignation” has resulted in an increased risk around insider threat incidents, as people leave organisations and take data with them,” said Ryan Kalember, executive vice-president of cyber security strategy at Proofpoint.
“In addition, organisational insiders, including employees, contractors, and third-party vendors, are an…
Hacking the World – Part 4: The Cost and Future of Hacking (Plus: Safety Tips)
Each week in October, as part of Cybersecurity Awareness Month, we’ll publish an article packed with facts and stats, to give you an in-depth look at the state of cybersecurity in today’s world. We’ll start with the basics, then cover vulnerabilities, risks, costs – and much more.
We finish our four-part Hacking the World serie with two key questions: how much does hacking cost the world at large, and what’s coming up next? We’ll cover some of the biggest, costliest data breaches and then take a peek at what the future holds for hacking. To round out your read, we’ve also compiled a few basic cybersecurity tips, to help keep you cybersafe.
Before looking ahead, a reminder that we’ve covered the basics, what’s being hacked (with Covid updates), and the who and where of hacking. For a refresher of key hacking terms and definitions, read our helpful cybersecurity glossary from Part 1.
Jump to a section below, or read on:
The Cost of Hacking
The Future of Hacking
Safety Tips to Prevent Cyberattacks
The Bottom Line
The Cost of a Breach
Data breaches cost time and money. Lots of it.
In addition to covering the immediate damages of a cyberattack, companies must pay out compensation and data protection fines, all while investing in cybersecurity systems. The downtime and consequently lost business of a breach add substantial costs too.
The Growing Cost of Cybercrime
The monetary damages of cybercrime are already sky-high and they’re only heading in one direction.
More and more, businesses are turning to digital solutions. Expect cyberattacks to advance in complexity and regularity as companies pursue fresh web-based systems and cybersecurity departments play catch-up.
Top 10 Costliest Breaches
It’s only right that we take a look at some of the most financially devastating breaches of all time.
The costliest breach on this list is Equifax, though, when we dig into the numbers, data breach costs can be somewhat of a grey area.
Sometimes costs are not completely disclosed or are not entirely calculable. Experts predicted that Epilson’s data breach could reach a whopping $4 billion, for example, while the Marriott breach may have cost closer to $1 billion…
How Much Ransomware and Cyber Attacks Cost Businesses – NBC New York
Cybercriminals disrupted the U.S. economy on an unprecedented scale this year, shutting down the U.S.’s largest fuel pipeline, temporarily halting meat processing plants that provide about a fifth of the country’s supply, and going after hospitals, clinics and universities.
The pipeline operator, Colonial Pipeline Co. based in Georgia, confirmed in May that it had paid hackers who broke into its computers systems $4.4 million in the ransomware attack. That kind of rich payoff has been driving the stream of assaults that is bedeviling companies and governments around the world.
“Nowadays organizations when they get hit with ransomware they’re just straight up calling their insurance company which negotiates on their behalf, makes a payment, gets a decryption tool and they get these companies back on their feet,” said Vikram Thakur, the technical director of the Symantec division of the security company, Broadcom.
That is not how insurance is supposed to work, he and others say. Insurance should compensate the victims, not reward attackers, and by paying, the companies are ensuring more attacks.
With the problem worsening, Congress and the White House are trying to combat the problem. In August, a bipartisan group of Congressional lawmakers announced legislation to help better track and analyze cyber crime. The Treasury Department under the Biden administration warned ransomware victims that paying hackers could violate U.S. sanctions and urged them to first notify the government, NBC News reported.
On Sept. 21, the Treasury Department announced that for the first time it had gone after a virtual currency exchange that it said was laundering cyber ransoms. It prohibited Americans from doing business with the cryptocurrency broker SUEX and said that more than 40% of SUEX known transaction history had been with “illicit actors.”
Some attacks are repelled. The Port of Houston announced in September that it had defended itself against an attempted attack in August and said “no operational data or systems were impacted.”
Among the successful ones, some are more dire than others. The one on Colonial Pipeline might have raised gasoline…