Cyber crime cost to soar, finds Juniper Research

The cost of data breaches will rise to more than $5 trillion in 2024, according to Juniper Research.

The market intelligence firm found that the cost of cyber crime on businesses will rise from $3 trillion each year to more than $5 trillion in 2024, an average annual growth of 11%.

Juniper Research said this will primarily be driven by increasing fines for data breaches as regulation tightens, as well as a greater proportion of business lost as enterprises become more dependent on the digital realm.

There is little correlation between cost per breach and size, Juniper Research reported, suggesting that organisations stand to suffer the most from regulatory fines and lost business.

Artificial intelligence will play an increasing role in learning the behaviour of security systems in a similar way to how cyber security firms currently employ the technology to detect abnormal behaviour.

Juniper Research expects security awareness training to become an increasingly important part of enterprise cyber security practice.

The gains that can be made by increasing human awareness of cyber security can make more efficient use of spending, which Juniper Research expects to rise by only 8% per annum in the forecast period.

Research author Susan Morrow said: “All businesses need to be aware of the holistic nature of cyber crime and, in turn, act holistically in their mitigation attempts.”

“As social engineering continues unabated, the use of human-centric security tactics needs to take hold in enterprise security.”

Mark Dugdale