Companies that want to avoid the most extreme cybersecurity-related losses should use multifactor authentication, monitor for covert channels indicating a backdoor, patch regularly, and use automated test to detect misconfigurations — in other words, the basics, according to a new analysis of the most damaging breaches of the past five years.
The analysis — conducted by the Cyentia Institute, a data science firm, and based on a dataset from insurance-data firm Advisen — found the most expensive cyber incidents and breaches caused a median loss of $47 million. However, that loss grew quickly for companies that bungled their response to the incident, with the average firm suffering $109 million in damages if they responded slowly, compared with $39 million for all other incidents in the extreme-loss data set.
The data underscores the importance that companies be prepared, says Wade Baker, a partner and co-founder at Cyentia and an associate professor of Integrated Security at Virginia Tech.
"If we saw evidence that the organization responded poorly — which could mean they bungled it, they were constantly changing their story, or there was a lot of focus on the incompetence of the response — then we saw a pretty big difference [in losses]," he says. "It is a lesson for organizations on the importance of planning and preparing for these events. They are rare, but you make things a lot worse for yourself if you are not ready to respond to them."
The analysis identified a total of 103 incidents that met the thresholds and cost organizations more than $18 billion in total. The data scientists also combed through public information ..
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