The cloud is gaining popularity as a business infrastructure solution. Companies large and small are taking advantage of the cloud to meet their business objectives while streamlining IT operations, minimizing costs, and maximizing security.
In fact, according to a Market Research Store report,
“The desire for systems that support flexibility is anticipated to spur rapid growth of cloud computing. Cloud computing markets at $20.3 billion in 2009 are anticipated to reach $100.4 billion by 2016.”
Here are a few more statistics about the cloud that might explain why so many businesses are adopting it, and why you should avoid falling behind in your cybersecurity efforts:
1: Ransomware Attacks
According to statistics cited by antivirus giant Norton, ransomware is “netting an estimated $150 million a year” for cybercriminals. The success of these attacks is sure to drive more of them in the future.
A recent survey by Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) showed that up to “24.6% of companies would be willing to pay a ransom to hackers to prevent a cyber attack” and “14.0% would pay more than $1 million.” With ransomware attacks, your company’s mission-critical data and apps are being held hostage.
2: The Average Data Breach Costs $3.8 Million
According to the IBM Cost of Data Breach Study, the
“average consolidated total cost of a data breach is $3.8 million representing a 23% increase since 2013.”
This is just the direct costs; the study didn’t take into account many of the indirect costs such as lost sales.
While especially large companies might be able to weather the average direct costs of a data breach, these costs can be ruinous for other companies. The best way to mitigate the cost of a data breach is to use top-notch security to reduce the chances and severity of the breach.
3: Hundreds of Data Breaches Happen Each Year
For every Chase, Target, or Sony hack that you hear about, there are hundreds of smaller data breaches occurring every year. According to statistics city by the Identity Theft Resource Center, “the number of U.S. data breaches tracked in 2015 totaled 781… the business sector again topped the ITRC 2015 Breach List with nearly 40 percent of the breaches publicly reported… In second place was the Health/Medical sector with 35.5 percent of the total overall breaches.”
Businesses such as retailers and medical/healthcare providers may top the target list of cyber threats for several reasons, such as nature of data stored on the business’ network (credit card info, SSNs, addresses, etc.), the amount of accounts that can be compromised with a single attack, and the net worth of the business being targeted.
Whatever the reason, tens of thousands of attack attempts are made every day, and that’s reason enough to invest in having the best secure infrastructure you can get.
4: Most IT Leaders Think the Cloud is as Secure or Better than On-Premises Infrastructure
While the common conception is that keeping your IT infrastructure on-premises is more secure than an off-premises solution, data from the previously-mentioned CSA survey shows that “64.9% of IT leaders think the cloud is as secure or more secure than on-premises infrastructure.”
There are many reasons for this, such as the ability of cloud service providers to focus more on integrating strong ,multi-layered security for their IT infrastructures than companies that don’t focus on creating IT infrastructure.
Additionally, it’s harder to target specific companies on a cloud solution with an external, brute-force attack. And, when you remove cloud infrastructure from your premises, disgruntled employees cannot directly access your IT hardware physically; this makes internal attacks harder to carry out.
When you move your IT infrastructure to the cloud, you can take advantage of the data security investments that your cloud provider has made, eliminating the need for large, up-front capital expenditures on hardware and security measures.
However, you still need the right cloud partner if you want to have best-in-class security for your company’s most sensitive, mission-critical data.
Read our latest Ebook, Secure Cloud Computing: Why Layering Is The Best Approach for more on how WHOA.com’s approach to security.
