Cybersecurity Statistics

Let us just picture an employee working with data on his/her computer. Behind the scenes, a hacker secretly accesses their company’s confidential files. The hacker holds the company for ransom for a profit by stealing sensitive information and selling it to criminals. This might sound like something fictional, but unfortunately, this is a daily scenario. Businesses are struggling with cybersecurity issues every day.

So, what can someone do to protect themselves from such a quagmire? Taking in the right information and acting on them quickly is what matters the most here.

This article is a compilation of the most recent cybersecurity statistics. Hop in to traverse through the latest cybersecurity statistics and make the most out of them.

On this page, you’ll find:

• General Cybersecurity Market Statistics
• Hacking and Data Breaches Statistics
• Types of Cyberattack Statistics
• Cybersecurity Job Statistics
• Cybersecurity Compliance and Governance Statistics

Key Cybersecurity Statistics

Here are the top 10 stats from the article below:

• In 2020, the global cybersecurity market was valued at $156.24 billion. With an annual growth rate of 14.5%, this is expected to reach $352.25 billion by 2026. (Mordor Intelligence)

• Despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the value of the global cybersecurity market is expected to reach $433.6 billion by 2030. (P&S Intelligence)

• As of 2020, $3.86 million is the average cost of a data breach. (IBM)

• In 2020, 58% of breaches involved personal data. (Verizon)

• In 2019, the number of attack groups that used destructive malware to destroy and disrupt business operations grew by 25% (Symantec)

• Coincheck ($500 million), Mt. Gox ($460 million), Bitfinex ($72 million), Binance ($40 million), and Bittrex ($18 million) were the top 5 worst crypto hacks. (Coin Insider)

• Globally, there are around 3.5 million cybersecurity jobs. (PwC)

• Currently, with around 521,000 positions unfilled, the U.S. cybersecurity workforce now totals almost 942,000. (Cyber Seek)

• Due to remote work since COVID-19, third-party cyber risks are a major concern for 52% of legal and compliance leaders. (Gartner)

• While preparing for the GDPR, about 88% of the companies spent more than $1 million. (IT Governance)

General Cybersecurity Market Statistics

The importance of cybersecurity will continue to expand at a lightning speed as more and more things in today’s modern world are getting connected to the internet. Given such a favorable scenario for businesses, the cybersecurity market size and growth statistics are likely to further progress. Let us first get to know some of the general cybersecurity market statistics.

• In 2020, the global cybersecurity market was valued at $156.24 billion. With an annual growth rate of 14.5%, this is expected to reach $352.25 billion by 2026. (Mordor Intelligence)

• Despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the value of the global cybersecurity market is expected to reach $433.6 billion by 2030. (P&S Intelligence)

• By 2021, losses from cybercrime damages are estimated to reach $6 trillion. (Cybercrime Magazine)

• In 2020, global spending on security products was valued at $125.2 billion, registering a 6% increase over 2019. (IDC)

• The global cyber insurance market was worth $7.7 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach $20.4 billion by 2025 with a CAGR of 21.2%. (Markets and Markets)

• There are plans for 55% of business executives to increase their budgets for cybersecurity in 2021. (PwC)

• In the U.S., the cyber liability insurance market was worth $2.7 billion in 2020. (IBIS World)

• France ($3.1 billion), Spain ($2.6 billion), Germany ($2.2 billion), United Kingdom ($1.5 billion), Netherlands ($1.3 billion), and Belgium ($1.3 billion) are the countries in Europe whose firms have the biggest cybersecurity expenditures. (Hiscox)

• In terms of total investment, the 3 largest cybersecurity vendors are Cisco (9.1%), Palo Alto Networks (7.8%), and Fortinet (5.9%) from the U.S. (Canalys)

• $18.8 billion is the U.S. president’s cybersecurity budget for 2021. (U.S. Government Information)

Hacking and Data Breaches Statistics

The crippling security breaches that companies experience these days have a direct effect on the wave of compromised data. Acquiring money highly motivates hackers and personal information is the most valued type of data to compromise. Companies are also not fully prepared for breaches. Let us now look at some of the biggest hacking and data breaches that have occurred in the past.

• As of 2020, $3.86 million is the average cost of a data breach. (IBM)

• In 2020, 58% of breaches involved personal data. (Verizon)

• In 2021, the cost of ransomware damage was $20 billion which is 57 times more than the cost in 2015. (Cybersecurity Ventures)

• Since 2018, security breaches have increased by 11% (Accenture)

• In the event of a data breach, 56% of Americans don’t know what steps to take. (Varonis)

• The biggest data breach of all-time involving 10.88 billion accounts is the Cam4 data breach in 2020 till now. (UpGuard)

• A security breach impacted data of more than 5.2 million hotel guests was disclosed by Marriott International in 2020. (Marriott International)

• Hackers leaked records of 142 million hotel guests in the 2019 MGM data breach. (CPO Magazine)

• The Equifax Breach affected 147.9 million consumers in 2017. (Equifax)

• From Friend Finder’s sites, 412 million user accounts were stolen in 2017. (The Wall Street Journal)

Types of Cyberattack Statistics

Technology is advancing every day. But the irony is with each technological advancement, there is an increase in cyberattack incidence. New sophisticated cybercrime activities are born from innovations like IoT, mobile payments, and cloud computing. It is essential to have a grasp of the general landscape of metrics that involve cybersecurity issues, including the most common types of attacks and how they originate. In this section, we shall look at some statistics on types of a cyberattack.

• In 2019, the number of attack groups that used destructive malware to destroy and disrupt business operations grew by 25% (Symantec)

• Coincheck ($500 million), Mt. Gox ($460 million), Bitfinex ($72 million), Binance ($40 million), and Bittrex ($18 million) were the top 5 worst crypto hacks. (Coin Insider)

• In 2020, 3,818,307 email threats related to COVID-19 were detected. (Trend Micro)

• In 2020, during the COVID-19 lockdown period, 28% of organizations reported having ransomware. (Sophos)

• The total number of DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks will reach 14.5 million by 2020. (Cisco)

• Across all types of networks, crypto weaknesses (39.7%), cross-site scripting (12%), system patching related (8%), directory listing (7.1%), and exposed systems and services (3.5%) are the most common types of cyberattack vulnerabilities. (Edgescan)

• E-mails deliver about 94% of malware. (CSO Online)

• Cryptomining accounts for 90% of remote code execution attacks. (Purplesec)

• $133,000 is the average cost of a ransomware attack on businesses. (SafeAtLast)

• More than 2 million phishing sites were detected by Google in 2020. (TechRadar)

Cybersecurity Job Statistics

The demand for cybersecurity professionals and cybersecurity budgets continue to rise as the rates of cyberattacks increase. The current initiative for diverse cyber work environments is the best approach to fight cyber criminality. Globally, this will enable the generation of powerful creative problem-solving to effectively address the unrelenting threat of cybercrimes. Now, let us explore a few cybersecurity job statistics.

• Globally, there are around 3.5 million cybersecurity jobs. (PwC)

• Currently, with around 521,000 positions unfilled, the U.S. cybersecurity workforce now totals almost 942,000. (Cyber Seek)

• There are around 2 million cybersecurity jobs to be filled in the Asia-Pacific Region. (eSecurity Planet)

• In the U.S., annually, $99,730 is the median pay of cybersecurity analysts ($47.95 per hour), which is higher than the national average. (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)

• Application development security (164%), cloud security (115%), risk management (60%), threat intelligence (41%), and incident response (37%) are the fastest-growing cybersecurity skills. (Burning Glass Technologies)

• 61% of companies feel that their cybersecurity applicants aren’t qualified enough. (ISSA)

• Since 2016, the demand for Data Protection Officers (DPOs) has skyrocketed and risen over 700%, because of the GDPR demands. (Reuters)

• Across Europe, an estimated 500,000 organizations have registered Data Protection Officers (DPOs). (IAPP)

• With an average salary of $140,000 annually, cybersecurity engineers are some of the highest-paid positions. (Cybint)

• With a salary boost of $15,008, the most lucrative competency to have is cloud security skills. (Forbes)

Cybersecurity Compliance and Governance Statistics

For companies, the risks of not securing files are more dangerous than ever because of new threats emerging every day. With stricter legislation being passed in regions across the world, more severe consequences are being enforced. In the coming years, more iterations are expected to be passed across the globe. Companies need to make note of the lessons learned from the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Let us now gain some insights into cybersecurity compliance and governance statistics.

• Due to remote work since COVID-19, third-party cyber risks are a major concern for 52% of legal and compliance leaders. (Gartner)

• While preparing for the GDPR, about 88% of the companies spent more than $1 million. (IT Governance)

• When GDPR was first introduced, there were about 44,000 complaints filed with various GDPR enforcement agencies and around 89,000 data breaches were recorded. (EDPB)

• To avoid the GDPR compliance rules, an estimated 1,000 news sources blocked EU readers. (Nieman Lab)

• During the first year of GDPR, the total fines collected were $63 million. (GDPR.EU)

• E-mails deliver about 94% of malware. (CSO Online)

• For violating GDPR, Google was fined $57 billion by CNIL, a French data protection agency. (Tech Crunch)

• As new GDPR emerges, 70% of companies say that the systems they put in place will not scale. (Data Grail)

• Lack of visibility of sensitive data is a compliance concern according to 31% of security leaders. (Panaseer)

• Only 59% of companies believed that they were GDPR compliant by 2019. (ZD Net)

• An employee has access to an average of 11 million files. (Varonis)

Conclusion

We are at the end of this article and by now you would have gained some fundamental knowledge on cybersecurity. There are no chances that cybercrime is going to vanish. By all means, it is going to grow more in numbers and become more sophisticated in the future.

Undoubtedly, cybercrime is dire. An effective cybersecurity system is a must for all businesses. Fortunately, by assessing the level of cybersecurity risk of your business, making company-wide changes, and improving overall security behavior, it is possible to secure your business from most data breaches.