Cybercrime is on the rise. Some scary 2021 internet security facts and statistics reveal an increase in hacked websites, breached data sources, and a growing number of phishing scams.
The Internet Security Landscape of 2021
Websites, especially those based on famous CMS platforms such as WordPress, are becoming increasingly vulnerable and exploited.
Today, we’ll be looking at the top 2021 internet security facts and statistics and determine what it means for the average website owner.
A growing industry
According to Gartner Research, the cybersecurity industry is expected to exceed $170.4 billion by next year. Most of this value will be driven by new technology that combats ever-evolving cyberattacks.
Yearly, more and more business owners realize the importance of having updated cybersecurity. Accenture reports that 68% of business owners list cybersecurity as a business priority.
Humans are the most vulnerable part of your cybersecurity strategy
While there’s a definite move to try and secure websites with some of the latest technology, most cyberattack breaches are still due to human error.
In fact, according to CyberInt, 95% of cyber breaches are due to human error. Additionally, Varonis reports only 5% of most companies’ folders are adequately protected from cybercriminals.
Unsecured usernames and passwords provide hackers with the best chances of success.
There’s an attack every 39 seconds
Every 39 seconds, there’s a hacker attack. A study conducted at the University of Maryland found that there’s a nearly constant rate of cyberattacks. A large majority of these constant attacks are successful.
36 billion records in the first half of 2020 were exposed by successful hacker attempts alone. These data breaches cost companies a significant amount of money.
Globally, data breaches cost a company on average $3.9 million
While this cost is crippling for most small and medium businesses, more extensive public companies can face devastating costs of up to $116 million.
Not only is there a lot of money at stake, but once a company becomes known for having a data breach, its reputation is in tatters.
It can take around 6 months to realize you’ve had a data breach
A new study reveals that financial firms take on average between 98 and 197 days to detect a data breach.
During this time, cybercriminals already made off with valuable data, such as credit card details, social security numbers, and passwords.
The Importance of Keeping Your Site Secure
Today, website security is crucial to your business. Here’s why you should invest in strengthening your website security and keeping your site secure from cyberattacks.
It builds a trusted reputation
When your customers and clients trust you with their credit card details and other personal details, you need to have the right level of security on your site.
By having proper security installed, your customers will trust you and feel more comfortable when shopping there.
It improves SEO
If your site runs on a blacklisted IP address or is flagged as a malicious site, search engines like Google will avoid indexing it. This means that your site effectively becomes invisible to the public and visitors will find it challenging to get to your site.
It prevents spoofing
Spoofing is when a hacker clones your website to trick unsuspecting visitors into revealing critical data, such as passwords and usernames.
Having excellent cyber security on your site will make it difficult or impossible for your site to be spoofed.
How To Keep Your WordPress Website Secure
Luckily, there’s quite a couple of things that website owners can do to protect their sites. Here’s a couple of things that you can do to protect your WordPress website from being hacked.
Keep WordPress updated
WordPress is an open-source platform and gets updated quite frequently. We advise that you always keep your WordPress installation and any third-party plugins updated. By doing this, you’ll make it difficult for hackers to find exploits on your site.
Change the default admin account name
By default, a WordPress installation leaves you with a typical admin username and a low-level password. Hackers know this and use these default accounts to get access to your WordPress dashboard. So, we always suggest that you change the default account name and create a strong password.
Use a web application firewall
Another great solution to keep your WordPress site secure is to use a web application firewall. This firewall will prevent malicious attacks on your site. It also protects any scripts and DNS settings that you may have running on your server.
Conclusion
There’s no doubt that cybercrime is on the increase. Just by looking at the 2021 internet security facts and statistics, we can see how critical it’s become to secure your website.
Luckily, keeping your WordPress website safe and secure isn’t impossible. If you’d like more information on how to improve your online security, get in touch with us and we’ll help you out.