The latest Juniper Research has revealed that in 2022, global businesses are expected to spend $134 billion on cybersecurity solutions, which will see an increase of 33% in 4 years.
The research titled „Cybersecurity: Mitigation Strategies for Financial Services, Operators, Enterprise & IoT 2018-2022“ found that medium-sized enterprises would account for 70% of the overall cybersecurity technology spend in 2022.
Given the disruptive nature of the 2017 cyber attacks, it is understandable to see such a significant rise in cybersecurity investment, especially when the total costs of data breaches between 2017 and 2022 are expected to reach as high as $8 trillion. Some might say the costs stated are exaggerated, however Maersk, the international shipping company, reportedly lost between $200 and $300 million in damages after the NotPetya ransomware infected its global network.
Attacks like NotPetya have acted as a wakeup call for organizations around the world to have a serious attitude towards security. Given the number of internationally recognized brands that have been brought to their knees for failing to have the appropriate security measures in place, security spend will only increase.
However, before organizations begin investing on security, thorough homework needs to be done to ensure the right solutions are purchased. The upcoming EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) must also be factored in any decisions made regarding data security. Consumers have become more vigilant and cautious regarding their data and they now expect a certain level of security to be applied to their personal information. If this level of expectation is not met, then the company will not only suffer financially but also reputationally.
If enterprises feel at a loss regarding current data protection capabilities, encryption and tokenization are data protection approaches that are strongly touted within the industry. In essence, both tools use unique algorithms to make data unreadable or untraceable at every stage of the data lifecycle. Given the current cyber climate, knowing that critical data is protected at every stage will give great comfort to any C-level executive.
Further reading:
How to use cloud applications without compromising privacy and compliance - eperi Cloud Data Protection
