With the last two years witnessing a huge global move to the digital world due to Covid-19 restrictions, cybersecurity is rapidly climbing up the agenda of important priorities for companies. Going into 2022, will we see cybersecurity become a more important priority than ever?
While we’re only a few days into the new year, the spectre of cyberattacks and hacking attempts are already making themselves present. Earlier this week, the Broward Health healthcare system in Florida revealed it had suffered a data breach back in October last year – leading to the personal information of patients and staff being exposed.
Meanwhile, Israeli publication the Jerusalem Post has already been hacked this year. A picture depicting a fist firing a missile from a jewellery ring toward an exploded dome, took over the website’s homepage. The hacking was linked to the killing of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in a drone strike on January 3, 2020.
Coming out of 2021, a vast range of diverse industries suffered at the hands of cyberattacks. One of the most notable attacks of the year involved Colonial Pipeline – a pipeline which transports 100 million gallons of fuel daily to customers from New York to Texas – which was hacked in May, bringing operations to a standstill.
Elsewhere, food processing giant JBS Foods closed down its production at multiple sites globally following a cyberattack. In what was also describing as one of the largest cyberattacks in history, US IT provider Kaseya was hit by a massive hack that compromised the systems of at least 1,000 businesses.
A key form of cyberattack that saw a huge incline during 2021 was ransomware. A report by Allianz found that during the first six months of last year, scammers demanded an average payment of $5.3m from hacking victims – up 518% on 2020.
With these climbing cases of cyberattacks, it should come as no surprise that the cybersecurity market is expected to grow considerably. Previously valued at $183bn in 2020, it is expected to grow to a valuation of $539bn by 2030 – a CAGR of 11.6% between 2021 and 2030.
The funding of CyberTech companies is also growing. Research by FinTech Global in June last year found that companies in the United States raised seven of the top 10 CyberTech deals in the first quarter as total funding hit $4.1bn for Q1.
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