It's scary stuff, and so are the statistics related to cybersecurity. Here are seven of the more disturbing ones.

82% of data breaches are caused by social engineering or human error

That's right. According to the 2022 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, when it comes to security breaches, people — your people — are the problem. Despite knowing how 82% of breaches fall outside of technical interventions, less than 3% of security budgets are directed at the human layer of security. In addition, 47% is spent on network security; 22% on endpoint security; 14% on web and 14% on identity.

By 2031, ransomware is predicted to attack businesses or devices every two seconds

Ransomware attacks represent the use of malware to attack and lock up (encrypt) an organization's computer data. The hackers involved then demand a ransom to unlock the data or systems. In 2021, the average ransom payment was $812,000 according to CybersecurityDIVE. According to ZDNet, 83% of companies impacted end up paying the ransom.

Percentage increases in scams range into the 1000s

Researchers at Baltimore-based ZeroFOX compared their own data to data from the FTC to calculate the increase in scamming incidents. What they found is startling. These increases range from 226% for consumer goods scams to 1,579% in retail scams. Scammers don't take time off. As soon as you plug one potential security risk hole, they find another.

Between 20-40% of your employees don't know what confidential company information is

Your employees can't protect your confidential information if they don't know what it is. Don't assume that they know, even if you believe it should be obvious. Be explicit about what confidential company information is, why it's confidential, and the costs to the company if that information is unprotected and compromised by bad actors.

79% of organizations are concerned about security risks related to remote workers

When employees are out of sight, so is their access to your systems and data. It's tough enough to tackle the human factors related to security incidents when employees are on-site. It's proving to be even tougher now that so many employees are working remotely some or all of the time.

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