Cybersecurity CEO: Security Awareness is An Ongoing Commitment

October 27, 2020

Now more than ever, everyone in the Boardroom and beyond can benefit from being informed.

Los Angeles, Calif. – Oct. 27, 2020

If you’re part of the cybersecurity community, then you know that October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month (CSAM), initially launched by the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in October 2004. Not long ago CSAM was a niche concept that only the security team knew about. Fast forward to now: cybersecurity is a consistent topic amongst the C-Suite and CSAM is a must-mention, internationally recognized campaign.

According to Cybersecurity Ventures – cybercrime will cost the world $6 trillion annually by 2021 ! Now more than ever, everyone – and I mean everyone from your CEO, to elementary school teachers, to your elderly grandparents - can benefit from being informed.

We can all do our part to make cyberspace safer by implementing stronger security practices, raising community awareness, educating vulnerable users, or training employees. Did you know that 95% of all cybersecurity incidents are caused by human error? If you don’t have a formal cybersecurity training program established for your employees, you are doing your business a huge disservice. Educating employees and implementing a training solution can reduce the risk of a security breach by up to 70%.

Startling stats like these are the best way to gain attention and raise awareness around an important cause. Below I’m sharing a roundup of more figures and predictions to celebrate being #CyberAware. If you’re a CISO or security leader, then share this information with your CEO and board members.

Cyber Primer for the C-Suite

These 10 data points illustrate the cyber threats faced by governments, businesses, employees, consumers, and students globally.

• Cybercrime will cost the world $6 trillion annually by 2021, up from $3 trillion in 2015.
• Global cybersecurity spending is not keeping up, and is estimated to be $1 trillion cumulatively over the 5 year period from 2017 to 2021.
• We are suffering through a cybersecurity labor shortage which will result in 5 million unfilled cybersecurity jobs by 2021, up from one million positions in 2014.
• Ransomware, the fastest growing type of cybercrime, cost the world $11.5 billion annually in 2019 and damages will rise to $20 billion by 2021.
• Ransomware will attack a business every 11 seconds in 2021, up from every 14 seconds in 2019.
• Cryptocrime is an emerging segment of the cybercrime ecosystem, and it’s booming. 70 percent of cryptocurrency transactions will be for illegal activity by 2021.
• There will be 6 billion Internet users by 2022 (75 percent of the projected world population of 8 billion) — and more than 7.5 billion Internet users by 2030 (90 percent of the projected world population of 8.5 billion, 6 years of age and older).
• The total amount of data stored in the cloud — which includes public clouds operated by vendors and social media companies (think Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Twitter, etc.), government-owned clouds that are accessible to citizens and businesses, private clouds owned by mid-to-large-sized corporations, and cloud storage providers — will reach 100 zettabytes by 2025.
• Total global data storage is projected to exceed 200 zettabytes by 2025. This includes data stored on private and public IT infrastructures, on utility infrastructures, on private and public cloud data centers, on personal computing devices — PCs, laptops, tablets, and smartphones — and on IoT (Internet-of-Things) devices.
• The world needs to cyber protect 300 billion passwords this year. This includes human and machine passwords.

Herjavec Group is proud to be a Cybersecurity Awareness Champion !  We championed the global initiative this month by educating businesses and consumers on industry trends, cybersecurity threats, and best practices.

But you know as well as I do that cybersecurity awareness is an ongoing commitment. Leverage our cybersecurity awareness assets all year long to spread the word amongst your colleagues, families, and friends.

To Your Success, 

Originally posted on cybersecurityceo.com