Cyber Security Facts & Statistics

• Data breaches exposed 4.1 billion records in the first half of 2019, a 54% increase over the first half of last year. Source: 2019 Risk Based Security Report
• Two in three SMBs suffered cyberattacks and data breaches in the past year. Source: 2019 Global State of Cybersecurity in Small and Medium-Sized Businesses by Keeper Security and Ponemon Institute
• Last year, 43% of reported data breaches involved small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs), so say what you will about cybercrime, but it does not discriminate. Source: Verizon (2019) PDF
• However, in comparison with larger organizations, SMBs usually have very few resources to draw on to protect themselves against cyber threats and to help them recover if they experience a security breach. In line with this, a 2019 survey found that 25% of SMBs suffering a data breach in the previous 12 months ended up filing for bankruptcy and 10% went out of business. Source: National Cyber Security Alliance (2019).
• According to a recent industry study, the biggest challenge preventing small companies from optimizing their security strategy is a lack of qualified staff, which affects a whopping 77% of SMBs. Source: Keeper Security & Ponemon Institute – 2019
• According to a recent study, a staggering 76% of US SMBs suffered a cyberattack last year, and 69% experienced a data breach. Source: Ibid.
• Since 2017, over 22,000 new software and hardware vulnerabilities have been disclosed every year, leaving organizations of all sizes struggling to keep their systems updated. Source: Risk Based Security – 2020
• SMBs often need over a month to install critical patches affecting operating systems (35%) and third-party software (58%), putting them at risk of cyberattacks exploiting brand-new vulnerabilities. Source: Kaseya – 2019
• Further complicating matters is the fact that many threat campaigns exploit vulnerabilities with relatively low CVSS scores that companies are less likely to prioritize. Source: RiskSense – 2019
• Recent research reveals that 4 out of 5 data breaches are the result of threat actors exploiting weak and/or stolen passwords. Many SMBs are vulnerable to password-based attacks because they have not implemented a proper password management strategy. Source: World Economic Forum – 2020
• Only 41% of small and mid-market firms enforce periodic password changes, just 38% prevent password reuse on internal systems and a mere 29% require a minimum password length. To make things worse, few companies regularly check if employee email accounts have been compromised in a data breach. Source: Keeper Security & Ponemon Institute – 2019
• Last year the vast majority of SMBs were targeted with exploits and/or malware that evaded their anti-virus (82%) and intrusion detection system (69%). Source: Keeper Security & Ponemon Institute – 2019