THE THREAT AND COST OF CYBER ATTACKS ON BUSINESS HARRY VINCENT

THE THREAT AND COST OF CYBER ATTACKS ON ORGANIZATIONS

‘Cybersecurity is how individuals and organizations reduce the risk of cyber-attack’ (National Cyber Security Centre) or ‘The ability to protect or defend the use of cyberspace from cyberattacks.’ (National Institute of Standards and Technology).

Threats to cybersecurity are ‘The probability of exposure or loss resulting from a cyber-attack or data breach on your organization’ or ‘The potential loss or harm related to technical infrastructure, use of technology or reputation of an organization’. Cyber Security threats and risks affect almost every organization around the world. These threats have been increasing for the last 50 years of technological change, but it wasn’t until 1970’s when ARPANET (the Advances Research Projects Agency Network) was created and Robert Thomas (an engineer at BBN Technologies) created the first computer virus called Creeper (which was deleted shortly after by the first anti-virus called Reaper which was developed by Ray Tomlinson), that many discussions surrounding computer security began to emerge. The first computer worm, The Morris Worm, followed on in 1988, developed by Robert T. Morris, a graduate student from Cornwell University and this paved the way for newer types of malicious programs. Hacking, which historically was used more to initiate practical jokes than cause serious harm or fraud, also began to be used for more malicious purposes around this time. Kevin Mitnick describes his early introduction to hacking in 1979 as something known as ‘phone phreaking’ which is a type of hacking that allowed him to hack into public and private systems and make calls for free; it started him down a long path of IT associated crime that eventually resulted in imprisonment. The rise in popularity of the home computer in the 1980’s and the development of the internet in the 1990’s brought about a huge increase in ’computer security’ related threats.

The IBM 2021 Cost of Data Breach Report which studied 537 real breaches across 17 different countries and 17 different industries estimates that a typical data breach now costs a company an average of $4.24 million per incident, up by 10% on the previous year. Image below: