Hackers are getting increasingly good at stealing people’s personal data, and that is becoming a real cause for alarm all around the world. Bishop Fox, a highly esteemed cybersecurity company, recently released a report that highlights the dangers that are being posed to cybersecurity these days. One of the most shocking revelations in this report is that around 64% of hackers require fewer than five hours to exfiltrate the required data with all things having been considered and taken into account.
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that only 40% of the ethical hackers that participated in this survey said that they were able to break in in the first place. That means that 60% of those 40% can do this rapid data exfiltration, which makes it around 24% of hackers overall.
In spite of the fact that this is the case, a quarter of all hackers being able to extract data so swiftly is enough to demonstrate the fragility of modern cybersecurity. Additionally, around 20% of the hackers that broke into the environment were able to extract the data in under two hours. Each and every one of them were able to exfiltrate the data in the span of a day, so discovering a breach several hours after it occurred might make it less likely that someone would be able to preserve their data than might have been the case otherwise.
A lot of work needs to be done, but according to Bishop Fox this is not the worst of all possible scenarios. The relatively low quantity of hackers who were able to break through defenses is a positive sign, since at least 60% of cyber attacks can be prevented if the results of this test hold out. However, when a hacker breaks in, most of them would scour the data so quickly that any mitigiation strategy would ultimately prove to be worthless. This highlights the importance of prevention before the fact instead of handling it after everything has already been done by malicious actors.
Read next: According To The Latest Survey, VPNs Are The New Door To Cyberhacking
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that only 40% of the ethical hackers that participated in this survey said that they were able to break in in the first place. That means that 60% of those 40% can do this rapid data exfiltration, which makes it around 24% of hackers overall.
In spite of the fact that this is the case, a quarter of all hackers being able to extract data so swiftly is enough to demonstrate the fragility of modern cybersecurity. Additionally, around 20% of the hackers that broke into the environment were able to extract the data in under two hours. Each and every one of them were able to exfiltrate the data in the span of a day, so discovering a breach several hours after it occurred might make it less likely that someone would be able to preserve their data than might have been the case otherwise.
A lot of work needs to be done, but according to Bishop Fox this is not the worst of all possible scenarios. The relatively low quantity of hackers who were able to break through defenses is a positive sign, since at least 60% of cyber attacks can be prevented if the results of this test hold out. However, when a hacker breaks in, most of them would scour the data so quickly that any mitigiation strategy would ultimately prove to be worthless. This highlights the importance of prevention before the fact instead of handling it after everything has already been done by malicious actors.
Read next: According To The Latest Survey, VPNs Are The New Door To Cyberhacking
