Why Cybersecurity is More Critical than Ever in 2021 for Business Owners

Cybersecurity is critical to securing your organization’s network and data, and keeping overall business operations running smoothly. The world of cybersecurity has made great strides thanks to the evolution of modern technology, bringing new levels of data availability, digital tools and automated systems to help businesses streamline and enhance their security efforts. However, there’s a disconnect between today’s security capabilities and how much organizations actually use them. 

With the threat landscape expanding and cybercrime steadily on the rise, this fact is concerning. 2021 has shed light on some crucial cybersecurity trends impacting businesses across all industries that can no longer be ignored. Take a look at these recent cybersecurity statistics currently impacting all industries:

1. 62% of organizations say they don’t take the necessary steps in properly securing mobile data.
2. The total cost of a data breach in America was $8.64 million in 2020.
3. Across all industries, it took an average of 280 days to identify and contain a data breach in 2020.
4. Data breach costs took up 39% of an organization’s budget over a year after the breach occurred. 
5. Cybercriminals sell access to organizations’ key systems for an average of $3,139, and systems have been sold for up to $140,000.
6. The healthcare industry had the highest average cost of a data breach in 2020 at $7.13 million.
7. Spyware was the top threat against small companies in 2020, followed closely by brute-force hacking and capturing stored data.
8. There has been a 24% increase in the number of data breaches caused by malicious attacks since 2014.
9. 7% of malicious data breaches in 2020 were caused by an internal member of the organization.
10. Security system complexity increased the average cost of a data breach by $291,870 in 2020.

While there are a variety of causes for the unfortunate security issues outlined above, it’s clear that cybersecurity as a whole needs to be reevaluated among businesses. Organizations will need to place higher priority on their security infrastructures in order to defend against threat actors and hackers who are actively seeking out vulnerabilities in corporate networks. To learn the top cybersecurity trends facing businesses in 2021 and beyond, this visual by Panda Security provides a deeper dive into what should be on your radar and what strategies you can implement to keep your security defenses strong.