6 Reasons to Invest in IT Security
Global organizations spent approximately $124 billion on Security Solutions in 2019, an increase of 146% from 2010. However, in-spite of such high investment, 9 out of 10 large global businesses have admitted to having suffered some kind of security breach in 2019 alone. Marriot reported a breach on its systems in March 2020 which exposed sensitive information, including passport details, of millions of Marriot’s guests, identifying vulnerabilities in the online security system. Facebook and Instagram too reported of a breach which exposed their user credentials.
Breaches are happening to the best of the global organizations with the best security solutions. The question lies, what happens if you do not have a robust security solution?
Businesses in India invested less than 5% of their IT budget on Security in 2015. However, with the growing security concerns and the growing costs (IBM determine that an average data breach cost incurred by Indian enterprises was Rs. 12.8 crores 2019), the overall market for cyber security solutions in India too has grown, Gartner expecting it to touch $2.2 billion in 2020.
There is a growing need for organizations to invest more in enterprise network security solutions to reduce cyber security risks and protect their business information. If you’re still not convinced, read along:
- Cyber Crime is happening all around you: The first half of 2019 saw over 1400 security breaches being publicly disclosed. Financial Services, as expected was one of the worst affected with Healthcare and Retail a close next. Half way across the world, the US Defence Agency that handles secure communications for the White House suffered a data breach between May and July 2019. However, the breach wasn’t discovered until the end of February 2020! This is a huge alarm bell for Governments and businesses worldwide. Cyber Crime is only becoming more common.
- Cyber Crime leads to multiple losses: Financial losses are the primary metric that is often used to measure the scale of a security attack. In India, 63% of all respondents indicated that cyber attacks in 2019 led to financial losses. Globally, it is predicted that cybercrime would cost the world $6 trillion by the end of 2021, up from $3 trillion in 2015. However, it’s important to note that cyber crime does much more damage, other than financial losses, with 55% companies suffering theft of intellectual property/sensitive data, 49% suffering reputational damage, and 47% also experienced disruption of business processes. Sony suffered massive attacks on both its PlayStation Network (PSN) and Sony Pictures. The combined losses from the two hacks are estimated at around US$ 24 Billion, where over 77 million users were affected. The Sony Pictures hack was far more damaging because it resulted in the loss of almost all of its digital content, including unreleased movies, and also of social security numbers, salary data and other private data of employees.
- Cyber Crime can lead to Regulatory Non-Compliance & Lawsuits: Companies, especially in the Financial Services, Healthcare and some other sectors have a liability to ensure safety of customer information and sensitive data. A cyber crime attack can lead to them becoming non-compliant. This is a case for 27% of respondents to KPMG’s survey. Loss of customer information can also lead to a number of lawsuits, and settling them can be very expensive. A 2014 attack on Target, a US based retail store, led to the loss of over 70 million records of data, primarily consisting of credit and debit card details. The result was 140+ lawsuits and a total of US$10 Million which the company had to pay for settling.
- Cyber Crime targets your most Mission Critical Systems: 65% of all cyber crimes reported by Indian companies occurred on E-Mail Server while a whopping 31% of the attacks were designed to take down the ERP system. Cybercrime targets your critical systems and applications to maximize business disruption.
- Cloud is More Vulnerable: With Cloud is increasingly becoming the choice of technology, Gartner reveals it is more vulnerable to cyber threats and attacks. Hence, while adopting Cloud based security models is optimum for business operations, organizations must focus on additional security measures to protect their data.
As per PWC, employees are the top reasons for security threats arising within businesses, with current and past employees leading to a gigantic 60% of all security related incidents, with 22% being caused by consultants and service providers.
- Threats from within: As per PWC, employees are the top reasons for security threats arising within businesses, with current and past employees leading to a gigantic 60% of all security related incidents, with 22% being caused by consultants and service providers. While most of these incidents are inadvertent, a good security system can help in preventing such incidents. The Panama Papers saga is an interesting case study here, where an internal source submitted encrypted internal documents from Mossack Fonseca, a Panamian law firm dealing with offshore companies. The attack exposed several high profile personalities world over and started from within the company!
Cyber crimes are detrimental for organizations and can lead to huge financial losses as well as collateral damage in the form of loss of customer trust, brand image and even customers, besides impacting compliance, and more.
The time is critical to re-examine the security threats and ensure the safeguards are robust to prevent irrecoverable damages to business and profits with comprehensive enterprise network security solutions. Embee Software Pvt. Ltd. is a leading Security Solution provider in India. Contact us to get a robust Security system for your business.
