Market research firm Juniper has released a study on data breaches, which estimates that the resulting cost will reach $2.1 trillion globally in 2019, almost four times that of 2015.
The majority of these breaches, according to the report titled “The Future of Cybercrime & Security: Financial and Corporate Threats & Mitigation,” will come from existing infrastructure, while infected mobile and IoT devices, although on the rise, are “minimal” compared to “traditional computing devices.”
A separate report done by IT trade association CompTIA may shed light on the reason. It revealed that nearly half of organizations believe human error is a growing factor in security breaches, namely when IT staff fails to follow procedures and policies.
Juniper discussed cybercrime as a professional industry, with cybercrime products now appearing, such as in the form of malware creation software. The trend has seen a decrease in casual activist hacks, but a higher success rate, Juniper said, with the average cost of a data breach in 2020 to exceed $150 million.
“Currently, we aren’t seeing much dangerous mobile or IoT malware because it’s not profitable”, said James Moar, who authored the report. ‘The kind of threats we will see on these devices will be either ransomware, with consumers’ devices locked down until they pay the hackers to use their devices, or as part of botnets, where processing power is harnessed as part of a more lucrative hack. With the absence of a direct payout from IoT hacks, there is little motive for criminals to develop the required tools.’
