What is cyber Risk?

According to the Institute of risk management (IRM), ‘Cyber risk’ means any risk of financial loss, disruption or damage to the reputation of an organization from some sort of failure of its information technology systems.

All types of organizations regardless of size are at risk of cyber threat.

Picking from statistics, from 2014 through the first half of 2018, the greatest number of data breaches affected business and medical/healthcare organizations.

Top Target organizations or sectors for cyber threat may include the following;

• Business.
• Healthcare/Medical.
• Banking/Credit/Financial.
• Government/Military.
• Education.
• Energy/Utilities.

Type of Cyber threats

1. Phishing Attacks

Phishing attacks account for almost 90% of all breaches organizations face.

Phishing occurs when an attacker pretends to be a trusted contact, and entices a user to click a malicious link, download a malicious file, or give them access to sensitive information, account details or credentials. One of the most common example of phishing is Business Email Compromise which has been faced by a number of organizations in Uganda.

1. Ransom ware Attacks.

Ransom ware involves encrypting company data so that it cannot be used or accessed, and then forcing the company to pay a ransom to unlock the data. Company information or data that is not backed up is more prone to this kind of cyber threat.

1. Malware Attacks

Malware usually comes from malicious website downloads, spam emails or from connecting to other infected machines or devices.

1. Insider Threats

An insider threat is a risk to an organization that happens when employees, former employees, business contractors or associates access critical data about the organization and they can cause harmful effects through greed or malice, or simply through ignorance and carelessness.

https://expertinsights.com/insights/the-top-5-biggest-cyber-security-threats

Statistics of cyber risks.

Cyber security trends in 2022 statistics

• The cyber security market is growing globally at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.9%.
• The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 caused a significant rise in cybercrime and phishing attacks, most likely due to the increase in remote work and insufficient security protocols around that remote work.
• When it comes to cost by industry, healthcare is the most expensive for data breaches. In 2020, the healthcare industry lost around $7.18 million.
• It takes around 280 days to discover and contain a cyber-security breach.
• Most cyber security breaches (95%) are due to human mistakes.
• Google detected over 2 million phishing sites in 2020.