A couple of days ago, the IMF (International Monetary Fund) released its latest semi-annual report and for the first time included cybersecurity risk.
The report included some interesting and at the same time alarming statistics including:
“Cyber-related incidents have become much more frequent over the past two decades, and especially since 2020. In particular, the number of cyber incidents with a malicious intent (“cyberattacks”) – such as cyber extortions or malicious data breaches have almost doubled relative to the period before the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Along with:
“Cyber incidents can impose substantial costs on firms. Since 2020, the aggregated reported direct losses from cyber incidents have amounted to almost $28 billion (in real terms), with billions of records stolen or compromised. Total direct and indirect costs of these incidents, however, are most likely substantially higher. Estimates range from 1 to 10 percent of global GDP (Center for Strategic and International Studies 2020; Statista 2022).
In reading the conclusions and recommendations at the end of the report, it makes some very well thought out and reasoned recommendations including that Boards and Senior Management of companies need access to cyber expertise, a three-lines-of-defense approach (managing risk at the business, risk management, and audit levels), cyber hygiene to improve firms’ online security and maintain system health (such as anti-malware and multifactor authentication), and cyber training and awareness. Business also need to identify their critical business services and ensure that tested disaster recovery plans and a crisis management framework are in place.
SecureSphere can provide training, advice and solutions to help prevent cyber-attacks from impacting your business through securing both On-Premises and Cloud environments.