Cyber attacks caused revenue loss in 2016: Cisco

Over one-third of organisations globally that experienced a cyber attack in 2016 registered a revenue loss of more than 20 per cent, a new report has revealed.

According to global networking giant Cisco's annual report, 'Annual Cybersecurity Report 2017', more than 50 per cent of organisations faced public scrutiny after a security breach.

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Operations and finance systems were the most affected, followed by brand reputation and customer retention, the report said.

Twenty-two per cent of breached organisations lost customers, 29 per cent lost revenue and 23 per cent lost business opportunities.

"In 2017, cyber is business and business is cyber -- that requires a different conversation and very different outcomes. Relentless improvement is required and that should be measured through efficacy, cost and well managed risk," said John N. Stewart, Senior Vice President Cisco.

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The report is based on a survey spanning over 13 countries and including 3,000 chief security officers (CSOs).

Cyber attacks in 2016 became more "corporate" with digitisation creating more opportunities for cyber criminals.

Seventy-five per cent of the organisations investigated were infected by old-fashioned adware software that downloads advertising without user permission.

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"One of our key metrics is the 'time to detection'. Cisco brought that number down to as low as six hours. A new metric -- the 'time to evolve' -- looked at how quickly threat actors changed their attacks to mask their identity," said David Ulevitch, Vice President (Security Business) Cisco.

The study suggested that security should be made a business priority and executive leadership must own and evangelise security and fund it as a priority.