Cybersecurity budgets are going up. So why aren’t breaches going down?

Feb 02, 2023The Hacker NewsThreat Intelligence

Over the past few years, cybersecurity has become a major
concern for businesses around the globe. With the total cost of
cybercrime in 2023 forecasted to reach $8 Trillion – with a T, not
a B – it’s no wonder that cybersecurity is top of mind for leaders
across all industries and regions.

However, despite growing attention and budgets for cybersecurity
in recent years, attacks have only become more common and more
severe. While threat actors are becoming increasingly sophisticated
and organized, this is just one piece to the puzzle in determining
why cybercrime continues to rise and what organizations can do to stay
secure^[1].

An abundance of cyber spending, a shortage of cyber
security

It’s easy to assume that the solution to the cybersecurity
problem is money– to hire more security experts, to invest in more
tools and technology. If only it were that simple.

For one thing, experienced cyber professionals are in short
supply. The (ISC)2 estimates that there are 3.4 Million unfilled
cyber positions globally– a 26% increase year-on-year from 2020 to
2021. Additionally, nearly 70% of cybersecurity workers “feel their
organization does not have enough cybersecurity staff to be
effective.” So, even if an organization has the budget to hire a
small army of cybersecurity experts, they might not be able to find
them.

Moreover, data from the past several years shows that
organizations are investing more and more on cybersecurity each
year. Gartner predicts that global spending on security and risk
management will grow by more than 11% in 2023, up to $188 Billion
from just $158 Billion in 2021. This trend is expected to continue,
with worldwide cybersecurity spending forecasted to climb 11% each
year through 2026 to reach a total of $267.3 billion.

Despite these significant increases in spending, and many
businesses purchasing a plethora of commercial-off-the-shelf
security solutions– one survey found that the average organization
has 76 security technologies deployed– breaches of corporate
networks, systems, and data only continue to become more
routine.

Breaches are becoming more frequent – and more
costly

It’s no secret that cybercrime is a serious challenge, but
exactly how much of a problem is it? Some data suggests that the
number of cyber attacks was 38% higher in 2022 than the previous
year. That comes after a reported 50% spike year-on-year from 2020
to 2021.

While not all of these attacks are targeted or sophisticated,
the sheer volume of attacks raises the probability that one attack
will go undetected– and it only takes one successful attack for an
organization to face serious costs and reputational damage.

All too often, organizations react to cyber incidents only after
the attack is at an advanced stage, with very few clues on how the
breach occurred and what the threat actors might be after. This
leaves security teams scrambling to catch up, which slows down the
response and recovery processes.

Unfortunately, as the time it takes to return to business as
usual increases, so too does the cost of the incident. According to
the 2022 IBM Cost of a Data Breach report, it takes the average
organization a staggering 277 days to fully identify and contain a
breach. This brings the average cost of a data breach up to $4.35
Million – a figure high enough to pose an existential risk to many
SMBs. Even for larger enterprises, this amount of money is nothing
to scoff at.

A strategic shift is needed to give organizations the capability
to anticipate threats, implement preventative strategies, and
improve agility to detect and eliminate threats as quickly as
possible.

The journey to impactful intelligence

Without exception, every organization with a digital presence
will experience cyber attacks. The most effective approach is to
identify and respond to the attack as early as possible. The sooner
a threat is detected and eliminated, the lower the probability that
the attack will be successful and result in damages to the
organization.

So the question becomes: how can organizations minimize the
amount of time it takes to detect and defeat a threat? The answer:
impactful intelligence^[2]
that improves visibility on risks and enables cyber agility in
responding to and taking down threats.

In the Infosec world, it’s often said that threat intelligence
must be “actionable.” This is true, but it’s just one aspect of
what constitutes valuable intelligence. In today’s hostile threat
landscape, intelligence must be impactful.

Impactful threat intelligence must have 4 properties:

• Accurate – the intelligence must be true and
  accurate
• Relevant – the intelligence must be relevant
  to the organization
• Actionable – there must be actions the
  organization can take to defeat the threat
• Cost Effective – the cost of the threat must
  be greater than the cost of remediation

This new framework brings a must-needed shift from looking at
cybersecurity as strictly a technical problem, to a new mindset
where cybersecurity is viewed as a business challenge that must be
addressed in an efficient and cost-effective manner. Threat
intelligence can no longer just be an expense– it must be a
business-enabler that provides measurable value to the
enterprise.

Cyberint, a leading threat intelligence vendor
headquartered in Israel, is driving the evolution to impactful
intelligence with the Argos Edge platform^[3]. To learn more about
Cyberint’s new approach to threat intelligence, check out this
webinar on the Journey To Impactful Intelligence with Cyberint CEO
Yochai Corem.

There are always risks involved when it comes to cybersecurity,
but impactful intelligence significantly reduces the likelihood of
a costly breach and strengthens security posture to the greatest
extent possible. The time for impactful intelligence is upon
us.