May 21, 2019
4 min read
Cybersecurity Facts, Figures, Predictions And Statistics for 2019
Cybersecurity Ventures released a special first annual edition of the Cybersecurity Almanac, a handbook containing the most pertinent statistics and information for tracking cybercrime and the cybersecurity market.
Here are just some facts, figures, statistics, and predictions to help frame the global cybercrime landscape, and what the cybersecurity industry is doing to help protect governments, citizens, and organizations globally.
Cyber crimes are increasing globally in size, sophistication, and cost. According to Cybersecurity Ventures :
- By 2021 cybercrime damages will cost globally $6 billion every year
- Cybercrimes are vastly undercounted because they aren’t reported — due to embarrassment, fear of reputational harm, and the notion that law enforcement can’t help (amongst other reasons).
- By 2021 more than 70 percent of all cryptocurrency transactions annually will be for illegal activity.
- Last year advertisers lost an estimated $19 billion to fraudulent activities, equivalent to $51 million per day.
Advances in technology are the main driver for economic growth but have also led to a higher incidence of cyberattacks. The leading trends such as e-commerce, mobile payments, cloud computing, Big Data and analytics, IoT, AI, machine learning, and social media, all increase cyber risk for users and businesses.
- The 10 biggest data breaches of all time — with the number of accounts hacked and year occurred — according to Quartz: Yahoo, 3 billion (2013); Marriott, 500 million (2014–2018); Adult FriendFinder, 412 million (2016); MySpace, 360 million (2016); Under Armor, 150 million (2018); Equifax, 145.5 million (2017); eBay, 145 million (2014); Target, 110 million (2013); Heartland Payment Systems, 100+ million (2018); LinkedIn, 100 million (2012); rest of list…
- Cryptocrime is an emerging segment of the cybercrime ecosystem. One report estimates that hacks on cryptocurrency exchanges suffered roughly $1 billion in losses during 2018.
- The 5 biggest bitcoin hacks of all time — with the exchange name, amount stolen, and year occurred — according to CoinSutra: Mt. Gox, 2609 BTC | +750,000 BTC (2011); BitFloor, 24,000 BTC (2012); Poloniex, 12.3 percent of all BTCs — 97 BTC (2014); BitStamp, 19,000 BTC (2015); Bitfinex, 120,000 BTC (2016).
- The cost of the 2018 Coincheck hack, the biggest cryptocurrency heist to date, was $530 million. 523 million NEM coins (known as XEM) had been stolen from a hot wallet (a wallet connected to the Internet) allowing hackers to drain the coins into a separate account. The cost of those stolen coins has since declined dramatically.
- In a keynote at DevNet Create, Susie Wee, SVP and CTO of Cisco DevNet, shared research from Cybersecurity Ventures that estimates there are 111 billion lines of new software code being produced each year — which introduces potential for a massive number of vulnerabilities that can be exploited. Zero-day exploits alone are predicted to reach one per day by 2021, up from one per week in 2015.
- The FBI reported that the Business Email Compromise (BEC), aka Email Account Compromise (EAC) — a sophisticated scam targeting both businesses and individuals performing wire transfer payments — has cost more than $12.5 billion in losses over the past 4.5 years (as of its last tally through May 2018).
- Less than half of companies globally are sufficiently prepared for a cybersecurity attack, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers report that surveyed 3,000 business leaders from more than 80 countries.
- The 5 most cyber-attacked industries over the past 5 years are healthcare, manufacturing, financial services, government, and transportation. Cybersecurity Ventures predicts that retail, oil and gas / energy and utilities, media and entertainment, legal, and education (K-12 and higher ed), will round out the top 10 industries for 2019 to 2022.
- ATM makers, banks, and law enforcement have been scrambling to defend the 400,000 ATMs in the U.S. against “jackpotting.” When cybercriminals take control of the machine, cash spews out of it like a Las Vegas jackpot. Jackpotting has been rising worldwide, though it’s unclear how much has been stolen because victims and police often do not disclose details.
- Almost 50 percent of Ultra High Net Worth family wealth is being managed through family offices, which can be (cyber) targets due to the potential extortion value attached to reputational threats. 40 percent of family offices lack a cybersecurity policy. 28 percent of these businesses have already been victims of cyberattacks.
- Distributed-Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks represent the dominant threat observed by the vast majority of service providers — and they can represent up to 25 percent of a country’s total Internet traffic while they are occurring. Globally the total number of DDoS attacks will double to 14.5 million by 2022 (from 2017), according to the Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI).
- Hacking tools and kits for cyberattacks, identity theft, malware, ransomware, and other nefarious purposes have been available in online marketplaces for several years — at price points starting as low as $1 — which makes the cost of entry to a life of cybercrime nearly free.
