As the year winds its way to a close, if your business doesn't have a disaster recovery plan in place, there's no better time to take care of this need than right now. The reason? Not only because emergencies that require an immediate response can happen at anytime, but more specifically, the country could be hit by a wave of major cyberattacks in the new year, based on a newly released report.
In 2017, cyber warfare is expected to increase in prevalence, according to a recent projection by Forrester Research. The threats that are anticipated to ramp up include denial of service attacks, better known as DDoS, espionage, firewall breaches and ransomware. Furthermore, the potential fallout for businesses could be "significant."
Ransomware breaches up 400 percent this year
Perhaps the most hair-raising element to this dour prediction is the fact that many of the attacks that are expected to intensify next year were more common in 2016. As an example, more companies were besieged by ransomware, particularly businesses in the health care, financial services, hotel and accommodation and retail sectors, according to Beazley, an international specialty insurance firm. The company reported that the data responded to a 400 percent increase in ransomware breaches in 2016 on a year-over-year basis.
Information technology security experts believe that one of the reasons why cyberattacks are more commonplace today than at any other time in recent memory is due to the growth in opportunities, this being the Internet of Things era. Additionally, a number of today's business owners – both large and small – aren't taking the threats as seriously as they ought to, according to Trent Telford. CEO of the internet security firm Covata.
"The harsh reality is that cyber security is not even on the radar of many manufacturers," Telford told Reuters. "Security will eventually become more of a priority, but it may well be too late for this generation of IoT users."
It's further believed that as many – if not more – than 500,000 internet-of-things devices will be hacked into in the coming year, 24/7 Wall St. reported from Forrester Research's findings. Some of these attacks could be highly publicized, getting as much attention as threats from previous years, like when Target and J.P Morgan Chase experienced massive breaches, occurring in 2013 and 2014, respectively. The investment bank reported at the time that the information of over 80 million households and small businesses were exposed. For the office supply retailer, the attack laid bare credit card data of over 1.5 million customers.
Financial services firms have been in cyberattackers' crosshairs on an ever-increasing basis, and the sector may be ill-prepared for the fallout should attacks grow more common. Risk monitoring platform SecurityScorecard warned earlier this year that the sector as a whole is "highly susceptible'' to being compromised, saying that 95 percent of the U.S.' most income-rich commercial banks have a data security system setup that ranks no better than a "C" average.
Fortune 1000 company could fail next year after breach
If Forrester Research's projections prove prophetic, another internet threat could be lying in wait, and the effects could be crippling. The firm forecasts that a Fortune 1000 company in 2017 may fold because the aftermath is too costly to surmount, 24/7 Wall St. referenced.
A disaster recovery plan can guard against these threats, but this kind of strategy is particularly effective when implemented in partnership with a service provider that specializes in business continuity. At Continuity Centers, we're all about recovery. Our clients that have take advantage of our Instant Business Recovery technology can testify to this, as with the touch of a button, IT threats were thwarted and applications spared from further damage. The same outcome is available to you by partnering with us.