Over the past few years, there has been an exponential surge in cyberattacks globally. New technologies, a proliferation of threat actors, greater sophistication, and innovative skills invested in the cyber-underworld are all converging with the radical expansion of our digital world. This month, Statista forecasted that global cybercrime costs would rise by 69.94% between 2023 and 2028, reaching a stratospheric high of 13.82 trillion U.S. dollars. In contrast, Gartner has projected that global cybersecurity and risk management spending in 2024 will total $215 billion. While this disparity is significant and troubling, it represents a 14.35% increase over 2023, which is notably higher than the 8% growth projected for all other global IT spending.
Cybercrime is big business
Executive Risk Consultant at ESCROWSURE, Anthony Watson, says, “These forecasts highlight how cybercrime has rapidly become ‘Big Business’ across the world. Today’s threat actors are not just scammers trying their luck but include highly organised cybercrime syndicates, well-funded state-sponsored cybergangs and leading-edge bands of advanced hacktivists.”
“Financial institutions are of course, amongst the top targets for threat actors, and we’ve recently had Manoj Puri, ABSA Chief Information Security Officer reveal in the media that the bank has experienced a 400% increase in cyberattacks over the two years that he has been in the role with millions of attacks taking place every month. It’s not just the intensification in number of cyberattacks that’s a challenge, digitisation has swiftly expanded the attack surfaces of both corporate and government institutions. These digital territories that must be safeguarded now include all the attack surfaces of their third-party suppliers, and in turn, those of their 4th party suppliers. Establishing adequate defences and responding to ever-evolving threats has never been so complex and gruelling, and so critical to business continuity.”
Objectives for threat actors
While the ultimate goal of threat actors is monetary gain, their common strategy involves holding data and software hostage. Ransomware, denial-of-service attacks, and supply chain attacks can all sever a company’s access to essential business software. Malicious actors may specifically target software source code to block legitimate users, disrupt operations, and prevent business continuity.
