The Investment Industry Association of Canada (IIAC) highlighted a report by Barracuda Networks that analyzed the security challenges organizations face worldwide and the financial consequences following security compromises. The report is based on a global survey of 1,917 IT security practitioners.
The average annual cost to respond to compromises is $5.34 million ($2.98 million is associated with the damage of theft of IT assets and infrastructure and subsequent cost to repair or replace; $2.36 million is related to the disruption of normal operations, including revenue losses because of system downtime).
Most common attack types:
- Denial of service (52%)
- Phishing/social engineering (48%)
- Credential theft (41%)
- Advanced malware/zero-day attacks (40%)
- Malicious insider (38%)
- Compromised/stolen devices (33%)
- Account takeover (26%)
- Web application attacks (26%)
- Web-based attacks (20%)
- Other (4%)
More than 70% of survey respondents experienced a ransomware attack in the last year and 61% of those chose to pay ransom.
Only 39% of those surveyed said they are confident their existing security infrastructure is adequately equipped to protect against Generative AI-powered security attacks by hackers. AI has the potential to increase the volume, frequency, sophistication, and effectiveness of cyberattacks, underscoring the need for organizations to evolve their cybersecurity strategies.