According to new research from cybersecurity firm Radware, the average cost of a cyberattack has risen to $1.1m though with organisations that calculate (versus estimate) the cost of an attack, that number increases to $1.67m.
The firm's recently released 2018-2019 Global Application and Network Security Report also shed light on the top impact of cyberattacks with businesses citing operational/productivity loss (54%) followed by negative customer experience (43%).
Almost half (45 percent) of respondents reported that the goal of the attacks they suffered was service disruption while a third (35%) said the goal was data theft.
Despite the increase in cyberattacks, a third of businesses do not have an emergency response plan in place despite 78 per cent of organisations experiencing service degradation or a complete outage during the last year which is up by 10 per cent in 2018.
Impact of cyberattacks
Radware's head of online and digital for the UK, Ireland and the Nordics, Jeff Curley provided further insight on the findings of the report, saying:
“This year we’ve seen a real shift in the impact an attack has on a company financially and it’s especially interesting that more companies are taking the time to calculate the loss not just estimate it. That’s not surprising given how volatile economies are at the moment. Understanding the impact of downtime on productivity as well as sales and consumer trust is essential to justify spending money on protecting the business in the future, and staying competitive.”
The company also found that while the cost attack mitigation continues to rise, so does the number of organisations under attack with most organisations experiencing some type of attack within the course of a year and only seven per cent of respondents claiming not to have experienced an attack at all.
Twenty one per cent of those surveyed reported daily attacks representing a significant rise from 13 percent last year. Cyberattacks have also grown more effective with 78 percent of respondents hit by an attack experiencing service degradation or a complete outage compared to 68 per cent last year.
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