October, National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, is quickly coming to an end, but concerns over malicious and (and often costly) cyberthreats certainly are not. A 2021 press release issued jointly by McAfee Enterprise and FireEye stated that cyberthreats have increased by 81% since the global pandemic. Now more than ever, public and private sector organizations, including government agencies, schools, utilities, hospitals, and businesses, are common targets for cybercriminals.
Sound surprising? It shouldn’t. According to one GovTech article, data breach numbers, costs, and impacts all rose in 2021. The following information from the Identity Theft Resource Center (September 2021) provides evidence of this alarming trend.