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With damages expected to top $6T by 2021, execs remain unprepared to fight cybercrime

August 7, 2017

Cybertheft is the fastest-growing crime in the United States. Global ransomware damage costs alone are predicted to exceed $5 billion in 2017, up from $325 million in 2015, according to Cybersecurity Ventures. Further, the firm's research forecasts that the global cost of cybercrime will climb to $6 trillion by 2021. 

In spite of this, many businesses are not adequately prepared to combat cyberattacks.

In fact, of 1,735 global executives, information security managers and IT leaders polled in the Ernst & Young 19th Global Information Security Survey, only 22 percent fully consider information security in their strategy and planning, according to a press release.

In the EY survey, 89 percent of respondents failed to evaluate the financial impact of every data breach and 49 percent had no idea what financial damage it caused.

"Business leaders need to be well versed in both the opportunities and threats of the new digital business landscape," Tony Trama, director of security solutions at Micro Strategies, said in the release.

"Technology has changed our lives: We can access emails from our phone; we can work remotely on the cloud from home — all of which have been enabled by technology, which continues to pervade every aspect of our daily lives. Bearing this in mind, it makes it increasingly important for businesses to protect systems, networks and data from threats."