No one likes paying for things they hope they will never use. Whether it’s car insurance or fire alarms or life vests, our objective is to let those items collect dust, because the alternative means something bad has happened. IT security is no different.
No organization wants to be hacked, unauthorized access is never fun, and we all wish the only phishing activities we’d witness was a jam band from Vermont. But just as it would be irresponsible to hit the high seas without enough life jackets for everyone aboard, it’s equally foolish and shortsighted to leave the virtual gates of an organization’s computing environment unguarded.
And there is much to guard against these days. Bad actors are pummeling the IT infrastructures of companies of all shapes and sizes. They test and probe for weaknesses to exploit. Once inside they can wreak havoc, steal data, cripple essential systems and literally hold organizations hostage.
The cost of cybercrime-related damage is expected to reach $6 trillion in 2021, doubling the annual bill for such activities since it hit $3 trillion in 2015. Data breaches via hacking, malware, phishing, and social engineering are rampant and increasing, with billions of records, passwords, credit card numbers, and more being divulged or sold on the dark web.
Simultaneously, existing and newly introduced regulations are raising the bar on how companies that collect and store personal data handle and protect it. From GDPR in Europe to the California Consumer Privacy Act, management and safekeeping of personal information is a more difficult and onerous proposition than ever before. The stakes couldn’t be higher.
These paradigm shifts are driving worldwide spending on preventative measures to reach more than $130 billion by 2022. And while CIOs may be reluctantly allocating these funds and executive teams grudgingly approve them, investing in IT security has moved from optional to recommended to mandatory in short order.
Read the complete post at Channel Futures.
