Demand for cybersecurity experts will increase and become a priority for enterprises, leading to an estimated need for over 1 million cybersecurity professionals in India by 2020 and over 500,000 in the US. The US currently employs 780,000 specialists in cybersecurity, while 350,000 posts are still unfilled, reports CyberSeek, project supported by the U.S. Department of Commerce.
As of 2017, a single cyber incident can put a small company out of business, according to new research by Ponemon Institute. The findings confirm Bitdefender’s predictions for 2017 that targeted attacks would increase due to poor security of corporate networks.
The findings of a new ISACA research report on the state of cyber security are quite sobering: a huge majority of the organizations the group surveyed for its study expect to be hit with a cyber attack this year, but many of them remain unprepared to defend against such attacks.
The latest data breach report from Verizon is out, and if you’re looking for good news about the cyber security landscape you might be disappointed.
Update 5/13/3017: Yesterday evening the WannaCryptor (WannaCry) ransomware family infected thousands of computers across the world. In just 24 hours, the number of infections has spiked to 185,000 machines in more than 100 countries. Analysis of the Bitcoin wallets hardcoded into the samples show that the group behind WannaCryptor managed to extort roughly $US 25,000 worth of Bitcoin.
A new family of ransomware called WannaCryptor has started targeting businesses in more than 70 countries around the world. Hospitals, telelcom companies or gas and utilities plants are just some of the verticals that suffered massive disruptions caused by data being held at ransom.
In 2016, the number of ransomware attacks increased 300 percent from 2015, with over 4,000 attacks detected per day, according to US government statistics. Ransomware is among the worst types of infection, as it not only encrypts network data, but in the end may cost victims all their data – even if they pay the ransom. It should be a priority for all businesses and organizations in 2017.
A warning has been issued that companies who have installed the popular Cisco WebEx extension on Chrome could have opened themselves up to malicious attacks.
Ransomware, the most prolific cyber threat of the moment, gains foothold in organizations and companies via file-sharing networks, e-mail attachments, malicious links or compromised websites that allow direct downloads.
Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks have been going on for years. But in recent months they seem to have gained much more attention, in part because of high-profile incidents that affected millions of users.
Some 57% of CIO/CISOs surveyed by the consultancy firm EY have experienced a recent significant cybersecurity incident, proving that more work is needed to strengthen the corporate shield.
IT security spending ranges from about 1 percent to 13 percent of the IT budget, according to the most recent IT Key Metrics Data from Gartner. But spending can be a misleading indicator of program effectiveness, analysts say.
“Nowadays, if you stand still you won’t be able to keep your edge in the market or wherever you currently are,” says Florin Talpes, Bitdefender’s CEO and founder. “You have to be restless, in a good way. The moment you start looking for solutions and start to deepen and brush up these solutions, that’s where innovation is born.”
