45% companies suffered cyberattacks in 2021 due to WFH

Several companies shifted to remote work during the coronavirus pandemic. The shift to remote work also witnessed a major rise in cybercrime as 45 per cent companies suffered a compromise in cybersecurity in the past year. This is a rise of 22 per cent year-on-year, as per the Verizon Mobile Security Index 2022.  

Companies with global presence were even more likely affected due to cyberattacks as more than three in five or 61 per cent companies were hit. Besides this, 43 per cent organisations with only a local presence were impacted.

Verizon Business CEO Sampath Sowmyanarayanan said, “For businesses-regardless of industry, size, or location on a map-downtime is money lost. Compromised data is trust lost, and those moments, although not insurmountable, are tough to rebound from.”

Sectors that were the most impacted because of cybercrime on mobile security were financial services (93 per cent), retail (88 per cent), healthcare (87 per cent), public sector and education (87 per cent), manufacturing, construction and transportation (79 per cent) and enterprise (23 per cent).  

The report stated, “Companies that facilitate ransomware payments to cyber actors on behalf of victims, including financial institutions, cyber insurance firms, and companies involved in digital forensics and incident response, not only encourage future ransomware payment demands but also may risk violating Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) regulations.”

Meanwhile, 85 per cent of the companies surveyed said that they have a budget for mobile security and that there has never been a pressing need to allocate those funds for cyberthreat mitigation.  

Sowmyanarayan further said, “Companies need to dedicate time and budget on their security architecture, especially when it comes to off-premise devices: otherwise they are leaving themselves vulnerable to cyber-threat actors.”