top of page

The Most Alarming Cybersecurity Stats of 2021

With Halloween just around the corner, we wanted to share a roundup of “Scary Security Stats” from the past year.

Each year, cybersecurity companies publish a number of research reports focusing on different aspects of cybersecurity and breach trends. Below is a list of some of the most alarming statistics from several reports published throughout the year.


  • Stolen data has a wider reach and moves more quickly in 2021—Breach data received over 13,200 views in 2021 vs. 1,100 views in 2015 -- a 1,100% increase. (Source: Bitglass 2021 Where’s your Data Report)

  • The Dark Web has become darker, as the number of anonymous viewers on the Dark Web in 2021 (93%) outnumber those in 2015 (67%). (Source: Bitglass 2021 Where’s your Data Report)

  • Cybercriminals may be more of a “homegrown” threat than many believe, with downloads of the stolen data originating from the United States as the second-most frequent location (top three were: Kenya, United States, and Romania). (Source: Bitglass 2021 Where’s your Data Report)

  • The count of healthcare breaches reached 599 in 2020, a 55.1% increase since 2019 (386) (Source: Bitglass 2021 Healthcare Breach Report)

  • Hacking and IT incidents were the top breach causes in healthcare in 2020, leading to 67.3% of compromises (Source: Bitglass 2021 Healthcare Breach Report)

  • While 22% of organizations confirm that unmanaged devices accessing corporate resources have downloaded malware in the last 12 months, an alarming 49% are unsure or unable to disclose whether the same could be said of them. (Source: Bitglass 2021 BYOD Security Report)

  • The biggest remote work security concerns stem from data leaking through endpoints (68%), users connecting with unmanaged devices (59%), and access from outside the perimeter, meaning less anti-malware protection (56%). (Source: Bitglass 2021 Remote Workforce Report)


  • 62% of IT leaders say data loss with one of their cloud solutions would have a moderate or major impact on their business because they have either no backup solution or a complex one. This can be avoided by investing in a robust backup, monitoring your environment for threat and having a written and tested recovery plan. (Source: State of IT at Modern Workplaces)

  • Maintaining compliance feels scary with a remote workplace. When reporting their biggest challenges in maintaining compliance virtually, IT leaders named “finding a solution that is automated and easy to use (37%)”, and “employees using their own virtual tools with a lack of governance (36%)” as their top compliance concerns. (Source: State of IT at Modern Workplaces)

  • 25% of IT leaders that said email encryption and data loss prevention solutions are most important to overall workplace security also reported that they’re not satisfied with the solution they have deployed. (Source: State of IT at Modern Workplaces)

  • Overall email threats are on an upward trend throughout the first half of 2021. We quarantined over 2.9 billion email threats throughout the first half of 2021, which was a 13.5% increase over the trailing 6-month period. (Source: 2021 Mid-Year Global Threat Report)


###

Comments


bottom of page