10 IT stats that will blow your mind!
In our efforts to stay ahead of new threats and evolving technologies i.t.NOW participates in peer groups, conferences, and a significant amount of online research. We’re bombarded with data on how organizations use their technology. Here are 10 IT stats that will blow your mind!
- A Dark Reading interview with Onapsis director of research Ezequiel Gutesman concludes, “the average enterprise takes 18 months to patch these systems”
Microsoft patches and security updates come out every week. To maintain security of your network these must be applied in a timely manner. It is a monumental effort of IT professionals everywhere to keep their networks patched and up to date. So much work is involved that most organizations fall WAY behind. This leaves them open to potential threats.
- “90% of exploited vulnerabilities in 2015 were more than one-year-old and nearly 20% were published more than 10 years ago” – Edgescan Report
Most vulnerabilities come from systems that go unpatched for significant amount of time. Microsoft has known about them, developed patches, and released those to the public. The public is so slow to patch their systems that exploits that are years old are still effective.
- “33.33%of all high and critical risk vulnerabilities discovered in 2018 were in relation to unsupported Windows Server 2003 systems (No patching, support, end-of-life systems)” – Edgescan Report
Many businesses run critical applications and house data on servers that are end of life. This means they are unsupported systems with no more security patches. This makes them vulnerable to attack.
- “The average cost of downtime is $5,600 per minute” – Comparitech
This isn’t great news for business owners and the numbers continue to climb every single year. A good strategy for IT security as well as investment in a backup and disaster recovery plan is critical.
- “71% of small and medium businesses don’t have a backup and disaster recovery plan in place” – Comparitech
Most small and medium businesses don’t have a defined disaster recovery plan in place. A large portion of these would suffer significant financial losses if they were hit with ransomware or another debilitating attack.
- “93% of companies without Disaster Recovery who suffer a major data disaster are out of business within one year.” – Phoenix NAP
Startling but true. Almost all businesses who suffer a major disaster and are unable to recover their data go out of business. Time to get prepared.
- “96% of companies with a trusted backup and disaster recovery plan were able to survive ransomware attacks.” – Phoenix NAP
On the flip side, companies with a backup and disaster recovery plan in place usually survive and get right back to work. A quality solution is critical.
- “4.1 Million exposed RDP Ports are an open invitation to hackers” – techgenix
Many businesses will leave port 3389 open on their firewall for RDP to make it easy to access their systems from home or elsewhere. What they don’t think of is that RDP has long been a prime target for hackers for decades. RDP is disabled in Windows by default. Businesses need to take a hard look at whether this convenience is worth the associated risk when there are numerous secure ways to work remotely.
9.
43% of cyber attacks target small business – cybint
Some small business owners think that there is still such a thing as security through obscurity. “I’m so small a hacker wouldn’t attack my business” What they don’t understand is that hackers are targeting vulnerabilities and not typically individual businesses. This means that there is no such thing as being too small for hackers.
10.
“90% OF ALL CYBER CLAIMS STEMMED FROM SOME TYPE OF HUMAN ERROR OR BEHAVIOR.” – Chiefexecutive
Business owners also don’t typically account for the human factor. Most data breaches are caused by the weakest link in your security. Your employees are that weakest link in 9 out of 10 cases. Take the time to train them and you’ll have a much safer network.
