A study conducted by the Ponemon Institute on cybersecurity and privacy issues has concluded that cyber attacks on the critical infrastructure of several nations have left devastating consequences. The survey confirms that at least 90% of them have experienced one successful attempt of cyber attack every year which stands as a wake-up call to every industry across the globe.
Ponemon Institute claims that it has made staff from over six industries- utility, health, energy, transport, manufacturing, and telecom as respondents in its survey and thus came to a conclusion that lack of resources (mainly funds) and awareness about the evolving cyber landscape has become a major concern for the industry.
Over 700 security professionals are reported to have participated in the survey in US, Mexico, Germany, UK, Australia, and Japan and among them, 9 out of ten said that their organization experienced one major cyber attack in the past two years resulting in downtime leading to financial and name loss in the market.
Then how to keep your key infrastructure protected
• Plan well in advance and go with a proactive approach by involving the right people related technology and proportionate funds to deal with the situation.
• Keep a check on human errors and failings- like employees misconfiguring storage resources on-premises and in the cloud and employees clicking on phishing emails.
• Share your experiences with the law enforcement which in-turn issue a national alert if/when necessary.
• Explain to the senior management on the need to mitigate cyber risks on time by investing in threat intelligence solutions.
Note- A Ponemon Institute survey which was also sponsored by IBM in 2017 claims that the average cost of a data breach has reached $3.6 million or $141/ data record. In the US alone, on average, a data breach could cost the United States almost $8 million.
