For Most Large Businesses, Cybersecurity is Still Not an Investment Priority

However, according to a recent survey, even though the vast majority of large businesses understand the threat posed by cybercriminals, less than half of them consider it a top three investment priority.

This is particularly concerning considering the financial fallout from data breaches is continually rising. According to IBM, the average cost of a data breach was £4.42 million in the UK last year, whilst in the US, it was $9.44 million.

Breaches of large corporate networks are often the most costly

Big companies across almost all sectors are built to hold millions of records relating to customers and/or clients. They will also manage significant amounts of sensitive information relating to thousands (or even tens of thousands) of employees.

With eye-watering annual revenues and so much more on the line, ransomware groups know they can demand the biggest payouts from enterprises.

On top of direct financial costs, large businesses often see their carefully crafted public images severely damaged, which can lead to even more losses - Twitter’s market value fell by $1.3 billion overnight in 2020 after a series of high-profile hacks on the platform.

Large businesses are still the most likely toinvest

Despite less than half of large businesses citing it as a top-three priority, larger companies were still more likely to list cybersecurity as an investment priority than both medium-sized businesses and small businesses.

Cyberattacks aren’t going to stop any time soon, so the 57% of large businesses that aren’t putting cybersecurity at the forefront of their investment priorities are going to remain vulnerable to sophisticated and costly attacks.

And unfortunately, with the volume of customer data large businesses hold, so will millions of consumers.